Guided self-assembly of metallic nanowires and channels

A method is presented to form metallic nanowires and nanochannels by guided self-assembly. The method relies on an initial plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of a silicon oxide film with altered chemistry on a silicon wafer, and the cracking of the film due to tensile stresses upon annealing. The fabricated stress concentration features on the Si substrate control the number of cracks and their orientation. These cracks are then filled with electroless nickel, and the subsequent removal of SiO2 produces a controlled network of nanowires of about 100 nm in dimension. In addition to nanowires, nanobridges, and nanocantilevers have also been fabricated by releasing the wires, confirming that the resulting structures are rather robust.