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29/11/2007
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Nanowires grown at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are said to have a mechanical ‘quality factor’ at least 10 times higher than values reported for other nanoscale devices such as carbon nanotubes, and comparable to that of commercial quartz crystals. -
Nanowires grown at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are said to have a mechanical ‘quality factor’ at least 10 times higher than values reported for other nanoscale devices such as carbon nanotubes, and comparable to that of commercial quartz crystals.
Because a high Q factor indicates a capacity for stable vibration, NIST believes the nanowires might be used as oscillators in future nanoelectromechanical systems. “We think the most interesting thing about these wires is the very high quality factor observed for such a small object,” says NIST researcher Kris Bertness, who grew the nanowires.
NIST has developed a method of growing hexagonal GaN nanowires featuring low defect density and high luminescence intensity. In a paper, researchers at NIST and the University of Colorado at Boulder report high Q factors in wires ranging from 30 to 500nm in diameter and from 5 to 20 µm in length, vibrating between 400kHz and 2.8MHz. The nanowires vibrated when placed on a piezoelectric device stimulated by an electrical signal, but also when excited directly by an electron beam.
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Author
Graham Pitcher
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