We have shown that thermal Inkjet print heads can be used to place GaN nanowires on patterned substrates. The semiconductor nanowires had diameters ranging from 70 to 300 nm and lengths from 5 μm to 20 μm. They were dispersed in alcohol-water solutions for loading into ink reservoirs. To avoid clogging, the thermal ink jet heads were chosen with drop weights from 72 to 165 ng. The thermal ink jet method was successfully used to place nanowires across narrow gaps in metal patterns. When using a low-power optical microscope to align the nozzle with substrate pattern features, the placement accuracy is much higher than with micropipette placement. For unknown reasons, nanowires would not pass through piezoelectric ink jet heads. These experiments demonstrate that ink jet technology holds promise for low-cost, rapid, massively parallel placement and processing of nanowires for optoelectronic, electronic, and sensor applications.
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