Electron beam lithography (EBL), invented in the early 70’s, provides a means for patterning polycrystalline metal nanowires as small as 20 nm in diameter onto surfaces. The applicability of EBL, however, has been limited to research and development applications because it is a serial patterning technology. In 1990, a parallel version of EBL was described by Berger and Gibson, but space charge “blurring” has prevented this technique from approaching the resolution of direct-write EBL. Heath and coworkers recently described a novel method for depositing high density arrays of linear, 10 nm diameter metal nanowires onto etched semiconductor superlattices prepared by molecular beam epitaxy. We have demonstrated that ensembles of 30 nm diameter metal nanowires can be prepared by localizing the electrodeposition of metal on the step edges present on a graphite surface, but no control of nanowire position or inter-wire pitch is possible using this method. Lithographically Patterned Nanowire Electrodeposition (LPNE) is a new method for synthesizing noble metal nanowires on glass or oxidized silicon surfaces. LPNE involves the preparation of a sacrificial nickel nanoband electrode using optical lithography and the subsequent electrodeposition of a metal (Au, Pt, Pd, or Bi) nanowire at this electrode. However there is an important wrinkle: The nickel nanoband electrode is recessed into a horizontal trench defined by the insulator surface and photoresist. The electrodeposition of a nanowire into this “nanoform” produces a wire with a rectangular cross-section where the height and width are independently controllable with ≈5 nm precision, down to 20 nm in width and 6 nm in height. Since optical lithography is used to define the position of the nanowires on the surface, the spacing between nanowires on the surface is constrained by the optical diffraction limit.

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