The use of gold for fabrication of nanowire structures

摘要

A common application of nanometer-sized gold particles is as seed particles for growth of semiconductor nanowires, which are believed to act as highly promising building blocks in future electronic devices. In a majority of the reports of successful nanowire growth, gold has been the seed particle material of choice. In this review article we identify the different types of gold particles used to initiate nanowire growth, namely gold particles made from thin films, gold particles defined by lithographic methods, colloidal gold particles and aerosol-generated gold particles. The production and deposition methods are described and the advantages and disadvantages of the particle types are discussed. In addition we discuss different properties that seem to make gold the most universal material for nanowire seed particles.