Periodic nanowire array at the crystal interface.

A dislocation in a crystalline material has dangling bonds at its core and a strong strain field in its vicinity. Consequently, the dislocation attracts solute atoms and forms a so-called Cottrell atmosphere along the dislocation. A crystalline dislocation can be used as a template to produce nanowires by selectively doping foreign atoms along the dislocation. However, control of the configuration, spacing, and density of the formed periodic nanowire array has heretofore been extremely difficult. Here we show a method for fabricating ordered, electrically conductive nanowire arrays using periodic dislocations at crystal interfaces. As a demonstration, we fabricated arrays of titanium nanowires arranged at intervals of either 13 or 90 nm and then confirmed by scanning probe microscopy that they exhibit electrical conductivity inside an insulating aluminum oxide. Significantly, we were able to precisely control nanowire periodicity by the choice of crystal orientation and/or crystal planes at the crystal interface. This simple method for the fabrication of periodic nanowire arrays of highly controlled density should be widely applicable to electrical, magnetic, and optical devices.