Cross-sectional view of stable nanowires made from carbon–silicon (left), germanium–silicon (center) and tin–silicon (right), as predicted by calculations. The silicon atoms (yellow) are found at the edge of the nanowire when alloyed with tin (gray) and germanium (green). In contrast, in carbon–silicon nanowires (where carbon is indicated in black), they have an ordered arrangement. Credit: A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing The semiconductor silicon lies at the heart of the current revolution in electronics and computing. In particular, it can produce compact integrated circuits when processed by modern techniques capable of fabricating structures just a few nanometers in size. Now, Man-Fai Ng and Teck Leong Tan at the A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore have shown that mixing silicon with similar materials can open the door to the fabrication of nanoscale devices with a diverse array of properties that have a wider range of applications. Ng and Tan used state-of-the-art computer simulations to assess the structural stability and electronic properties of silicon-based nanowires. As their name suggests, nanowires are just a few nanometers wide but can be up to a millimeter long. They exhibit unusual electronic properties because their small width confines the motion of electrons across the
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