Semiconductor nanowires: A platform for nanoscience and nanotechnology
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troduction In this lecture, I will describe research focused on semiconductor nanowires, although the time constraints will restrict this discussion to several key concepts and areas that we are pursuing at present. After providing a brief introduction to the types of nanomaterials that can serve as platforms for studying both fundamental science and advancing technology, I will focus on two basic areas of research. The first describes our ability to control the synthesis of semiconductor nanowires1–34 with respect to the very important problem of determining the limits of and new concepts for nano-enabled photovoltaics.35–39 The second and very different area of discussion will focus on the exciting frontier between nanoelectronics and biology.40–56
Nanomaterials: What makes an ideal platform? Several families of nanostructures have been described over the past several decades, including quantum dots,57,58 semiconductor nanowires,59–70 and carbon materials such as nanotubes and graphene,71–73 where each of these classes of materials has been
shown to exhibit interesting properties. Excellent properties are important motivation for investigating any specific system, although a single material with exceptional properties does not necessarily constitute a new technology. Specifically, the capability to create new nanostructures and assemblies with tunable composition and structure on many length scales is critical to and drives the scientific breakthroughs that enable revolutionary advances and future technologies. In other words, rather than exploring a single nanomaterial, many of the greatest opportunities lie with systems in which the structure, composition, and corresponding properties can be tuned. In this regard, semiconductor nanowires serve as one of the most powerful platforms available today in nanoscience given that it is now possible to design structures ab initio and synthetically realize these structures with the structure and composition controlled from the atomic scale and up. These capabilities—to design and synthetically realize complex nanowire materials— are unique among nanomaterials and enable systems or building blocks to be created that have predictable physical properties
Charles M. Lieber, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University; [email protected] DOI: 10.1557/mrs.2011.269
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MRS BULLETIN • VOLUME 36 • DECEMBER 2011 • www.mrs.org/bulletin
© 2011 Materials Research Society
SEMICONDUCTOR NANOWIRES: A PLATFORM FOR NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
and enable testing fundamental limits of performance. It is also possible to assemble hybrid or multicomponent functional materials in novel environments using these diverse nanowire building blocks, allowing for rational exploration of the possible applications of multi-component materials. With these characteristics and capabilities, nanowires are ideal building blocks for exploring what is possible in nanoscience and also creating new technologies. This has been our fo
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