Postdoctoral student Peter Krogstrup at the Nano-Science Center, University of Copenhagen is leading a research team that has developed the theoretical model in partnership with researchers from CINAM-CNRS in Marseille.
Nanowires, thin nanocrystal wires, will impact technologies due to their electrical and optical characteristics. The team has endeavored to apply nanowires in the designing of solar cells and computers. In the research paper published in the latest issue of Physical Review Letters, Krogstrup reveals how nanowires create a crystal structure under specific conditions. Crystals are guided by their internal energy to take on the form they do. A fundamental law of physics makes the nanowires obtain a cubic crystal hexagonal form.
Krogstrup has endeavored to analyze why and when the crystals turn hexagonal. He has studied the catalyst particle shape, which governs the nanowires development. The droplet shape depends on the number of atoms from group 3 in the periodic system, which comprises half the atoms in the nanowire crystal. The remaining atoms from group 5 in the periodic system get absorbed into the drop so that the atoms form a lattice, and thus the nanowire crystal will develop.
The crystal structure impacts the electrical and optical characteristics of nanowires. The shape of nanowires is directly proportional to the electronic components. The research has been conducted together with SunFlake, located at the Nano-Science Center at the University of Copenhagen. The company produces nanowires-based solar cells.
Source: http://nano.ku.dk/