ABSTRACT
The designation ‘nanowire’ can be used to describe an object with a large aspect ratio and a diameter in the range 1-100 nm. Such a diameter puts the radial dimension of a nanowire at, or below, the characteristic length scales of various interesting and fundamental solid-state phenomena, such as the exciton Bohr radius, the wavelength of light, the phonon mean free path, the critical size of magnetic domains, and so forth. Accordingly, many physical properties of nanowires of metals, alloys, and semiconductors are signi†cantly altered, when compared with the corresponding bulk properties. As well, the large surface-to-volume ratio enhances the relative importance of surface-speci†c structural and chemical properties such as chemical reactivity. The two-dimensional con†nement endows nanowires with properties that are uniquely different from those of the corresponding bulk material, while supporting thermal and electronic transport in the long dimension. Therein are the reasons for nanowires being of great interest to the basic research community.
