What is a Nanowire?
Nano-wires are made up of tiny strands of material. Nanowire arrays resemble bristles, ordered groups of high-aspect ratio structures attached to a substrate on one end. The diameter of the nanowires is 20-900 nm, while the length can be 100nm to 100mm.
Due to their small size, nanowires have exceptional electronic, optical, and mechanical properties that enable devices to be engineered with extraordinary capabilities. For example, nanowires have exceptional light absorption (they are on the same size scale as the wavelength of light), tremendous capillary action, and unique electrical capabilities that are used to enable Illuminex photovoltaic, heat pipe, and battery applications respectively.
Precision
Illuminex can control the metrics of the nanowire array to achieve specific results, as shown schematically in Figure 1. These tiny strands or wires can be grown from a variety of materials, including metals, semi-conductors, and dielectrics. The nanowires can be grown on a variety of substrates, including glass, plastic, and metals, all in a variety of configurations. The unique physical properties manifested due to the size of the nanowires allow for improved device performance with minimal material consumption.
Scale
Illuminex can engineer nanowires with diameters of 20-250 nm, lengths of 10 nm-200mm, and a center-to-center spacing between neighboring nanowires in the array of 1 to 5 times the diameter. Illuminex has developed techniques to reliably manipulate and control the dimensions of the nanowires. Due to their small size, nanowires have unique optical and electrical properties that are not manifested in bulk materials. Many of the physical properties that are observed in nanowires are brought about by quantum mechanical effects that are not demonstrated in the macroscopic or even microscopic realms.
Composition
Illuminex current focus is on the production of nanowire arrays made of gold, silver, copper and silicon. However, we can engineer nanowire arrays using other materials, so please inquire if you have an interest in something other than what you see here. We can produce vertically aligned arrays of nanowires on optical substrates such as glass, quartz, or sapphire, metallic conductors like gold, aluminum, or copper of nearly any shape, or even on the surface of a thread. The diverse range of substrate materials we use to produce our nanowires on is one of the ways Illuminex provides the nanowire advantage. A schematic representation of an Illuminex nanowire array grown on a copper substrate is presented below.
In the field of nanotechnology, we often find similarities between the structures we engineer in the laboratory and those found in nature. This ability to mimic the size, geometry, and behavior of naturally occurring structures is one of the many fascinating features manifested in the nano-world that Illuminex uses to look for insight into developing new materials and devices. For example, the picture below shows some ordinary blades of grass and a gold nanowire array that appear in many ways similar. However, for each 10 cm2 area of grass there would be 100 billion nanowires compared to only 30-70 blades of grass.
Below are images of some of Illuminex nanowire arrays. In addition to our own nanowire product development efforts, Illuminex also supplies customers with custom nanowire array substrates for their own in-house R & D work. If you see something here you are interested in purchasing, or are interested in a custom nanowire application, contact Illuminex and we will do our best to fill your need. These images of Illuminex nanowires were produced using a scanning electron microscope, SEM.
These images of Illuminex nanowires were produced using a scanning electron microscope, SEM.
Illuminex currently uses gold for a variety of applications. The stable, inert properties make it ideal for medical sensor technologies.
Illuminex currently uses silicon for novel photovoltaic technology development. Silicon is a stable semiconductor with controllable properties. It is material of choice for opto-electronic device applications. Currently, silicon technologies accounts for 94% of the photovoltaic industry.
Illuminex currently uses copper for thermal management device development. Copper is an excellent thermal conductor and is a very well-suited material for engineering thermal control devices
Illuminex currently uses silver for electronics development. Silver is a very good conductor of electricity making it a choice material for nano-electronics.
Illuminex currently uses Nickel as an opportunity for development of magnetic applications.
