D.N. McIlroy, D. Zhang, Y. Kranov, and M. Grant Norton. "Nanosprings." Applied Physics Letters -- Volume 79, Issue 10, pp. 1540-1542. September 3, 2001.

Description:

Wrap a nanowire into a helix and what do you get? A nanospring of course. Although wires tens of nanometers in diameter are not actually wrapped to make springs, they are grown that way through a process known as vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth mode.  A scanning electron microscope captured this image of the transition from linear to helical growth in a boron carbide structure built up through the VLS process.  A small perturbation disturbed the droplet responsible for depositing material as it passed the point labeled B, transforming the nanowire into a nanospring.  Nanosprings may someday make highly sensitive magnetic field detectors, perhaps finding application in hard drive read heads. Alternatively, nanosprings could serve as positioners, or even as tiny conventional springs, for nanomachines of the future.
 

 Previous Day/Next Day

Please contact the webmaster if you would like to submit an image