Conductive films of ordered high-density nanowire arrays

Encapsulation of nanowires within an ordered template offers the possibility of manipulating nanowires into useful configurations and allows their aspect ratios and, hence, their physical properties to be tailored. In our laboratories, we have prepared high-density, ordered arrays of semiconductor nanowires within the pores of mesoporous thin films (MTFs) and anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) matrices using a supercritical fluid solution-phase inclusion technique. Conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) was utilized to study the electrical properties of the nanowires within these arrays. Nearly all of the semiconductor nanowires contained within the AAO substrates were found to possess similar electrical properties demonstrating that the nanowires are continuous and reproducible within each pore. The ability to synthesize ordered arrays of semiconducting nanowires is a key step in future 'bottom-up' fabrication of multi-layered device architectures for potential nanoelectronic and optoelectronic devices.