Guided self-assembly of metallic nanowires and channels

The formation of metallic nanowires and nanochannels by a method of guided self-assembly was studied. In the method, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition was used for coating a silicon wafer with a SiO ₂ film. The guided self-assembly method was bed on the cracking of the film due to tensile stresses upon annealing. The method addressed the issue with the aid of the fabricated stress concentration features on the Si substrate that controlled the number of cracks and their orientation. Electroless nickel was used to fill the cracks, and SiO ₂ was removed subsequently to produce a controlled network of nanowires of about 100 nm in dimension.