Filiform Nanostructure Technologies Based on Microwire Stretching

Abstract

A technological route allowing one to integrate huge amounts of electrically isolated metal, semiconductor, or semimetal nanowires in glass fibers with the diameter of up to a few hundreds of micrometers is presented, and the perspectives of implementation of these filiform nanostructures in concrete devices are described, particularly in photonic crystal lenses. The technology is based on a multiple stretching process. We found that a relationship between the main technological parameters including surface tension of the core material, tensile force and glass viscosity should be satisfied in order to provide continuity of the core. The possibility of integrating hundreds of thousands and even millions of glass-encapsulated nanowires is demonstrated.