Some interesting catalytic activities of Au nanoparticles for surface-directed nanoepitaxy and etch will be discussed in the context of the Vapor-Liquid-Solid process that provide new toolsets for directed assembly of structures with sub-lithographic dimensions. In nanoepitaxy, examples will be presented that show the information deposited on a surface such as surface lattice order or termination could be used to control and modulate the shape and electronic structure of a laterally-grown nanocrystal. This aspect is used to scalably control nanocrystal growth, filter single nanowires from larger groups and partition nanowire heterojunctions into segments with different orientations. In surface-directed nanoetch, we show that Au nanoparticles spontaneously move across the (001) surface of semiconductors such as InP, InAs, and GaP when heated in the presence of water vapor. This is found to be a size dependent effect using which nanochannels can be formed on a surface on precise locations and predictable orientations. This process is expected to have diverse potential applications including integration of electro-optical microdevices with nanofluidic platforms.

Gold nanoparticles as novel toolsets for directed-assembly of structures with sub-lithographic dimensions

251st National Meeting (2016)

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