Electric-field assisted assembly and alignment of metallic nanowires

This letter describes an electric-field assisted assembly technique used to position individual nanowires suspended in a dielectric medium between two electrodes defined lithographically on a SiO2 substrate. During the assembly process, the forces that induce alignment are a result of nanowire polarization in the applied alternating electric field. This alignment approach has facilitated rapid electrical characterization of 350- and 70-nm-diameter Au nanowires, which had room-temperature resistivities of approximately 2.9 and 4.5x10(-6) Omega cm. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)04735-5].