Fabrication and Characterization of Metallic Nanowires

TL;DR

This paper explores how repeated plastic deformation using STM can create long, crystalline metallic nanowires through a process akin to mechanical annealing, with implications for nanoscale fabrication.

Contribution

It demonstrates a method to fabricate long, crystalline metallic nanowires by repeated deformation, revealing the role of mechanical annealing in their formation.

Findings

Repeated deformation produces long, crystalline nanowires.

Mechanical annealing improves nanowire crystallinity.

Deformation procedure influences nanowire shape and quality.

Abstract

The shape of metallic constrictions of nanoscopic dimensions (necks) formed using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is shown to depend on the fabrication procedure. Submitting the neck to repeated plastic deformation cycles makes possible to obtain long necks or nanowires. Point-contact spectroscopy results show that these long necks are quite crystalline, indicating that the repeated cycles of plastic deformation act as a "mechanical annealing" of the neck.