Patent ID: 7947162

Claim:
A method for growing free-standing mono crystalline nanowires comprising at least one metal using electro-chemical deposition in an electrolytic bath, said method comprising the steps of: depositing at least one dielectric layer onto a substrate; creating a dense pattern of holes in said at least one dielectric layer by lithographic patterning and etching; transferring said substrate comprising the dense pattern into an electrolytic plating bath comprising at least one metal salt; and forming free-standing mono crystalline nanowires that grow vertically out of the dense pattern by performing an electro-chemical deposition, wherein the dense pattern comprises holes with a dense array, said dense array having a pitch of from about 1 to about 5, such that a flux of ions from the electrolytic plating bath is minimized at the sidewalls of the free-standing mono crystalline nanowires and maximized at the top of the free-standing mono crystalline nanowires so as to promote one dimensional vertical growth of the free-standing mono crystalline nanowires and to substantially prevent lateral growth of the free-standing mono crystalline nanowires, wherein a length of the free-standing mono crystalline nanowires is longer than the depth of the holes in the dense pattern.