Rapid determination of nanowire electrical properties using a dielectrophoresis-well based system.

The use of high quality semiconducting nanomaterials for advanced device applications has been hampered by the unavoidable variability in the growth of one-dimensional (1D) nanomaterials such as nanowires (NWs) and nanotubes, resulting in highly variable electrical properties across the population. Therefore, assessment of the quality of nanomaterials is vital for the fabrication of high-performance and reliable electronic devices. The controllable selection of high quality NWs has been recently demonstrated using a dielectrophoretic (DEP) NW assembly method; however, no convenient, rapid method has been adopted for the characterization of nanomaterial semiconducting properties.

Simultaneous Tunable Selection and Self-Assembly of Si Nanowires from Heterogeneous Feedstock.

Semiconducting nanowires (NWs) are becoming essential nanobuilding blocks for advanced devices from sensors to energy harvesters, however their full technology penetration requires large scale materials synthesis together with efficient NW assembly methods. We demonstrate a scalable one-step solution process for the direct selection, collection, and ordered assembly of silicon NWs with desired electrical properties from a poly disperse collection of NWs obtained from a supercritical fluid-liquid-solid growth process. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) combined with impedance spectroscopy provides a selection mechanism at high signal frequencies (>500 kHz) to isolate NWs with the highest conductivity and lowest defect density.