Templated Fabrication of InSb Nanowires for Nanoelectronics

Among various ways to produce nanowires, anodic alumina membrane- (AAM-) based synthesis has constantly received much attention, because AAM has a uniform and parallel porous nanostructure which makes it an ideal template material for fabricating highly ordered nanostructures. In this paper, we report fabrication of InSb nanowire arrays with diameter of 200 nm and 30 nm by direct current electrodeposition inside the nanochannels of anodic alumina membranes without subsequent annealing. The nanowires have four major growth directions, (220) being the most dominant with structure defects such as twins. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) results demonstrate that these InSb nanowires are uniform with diameters about 200 nm and 30 nm, corresponding to the pore diameter of the AAMs. The I-V measurement of a single nanowire is also reported with encouraging preliminary results