Nanowires key to future transistors, electronics.

Researchers at INM, Purdue University and the University of California at Los Angeles have developed a method of creating nanowires with layers of different materials that are sharply defined at the atomic level. "Having sharply defined layers of materials enables you to improve and control the flow of electrons and to switch this flow on and off," said Eric Stach, an associate professor of materials engineering at Purdue. Researchers had previously been unable to produce nanowires with sharply defined silicon and germanium layers. Instead, this transition from one layer to the next has been too gradual for the devices to perform optimally as transistors. The researchers used a …