Researchers find 3-dimensional view of 1-dimensional nanostructures

Researchers at Northwestern University in the US have reported that individual gallium nitride nanowires show strong piezoelectricity in three dimensions.

Nanowires are often considered one-dimensional, considering that they measure only 100 nanometers in diameter. However recent findings, published in Nano Letters, have shown to the contrary.

Nanogenerators based on GaN nanowires have recently been demonstrated to be capable of converting mechanical energy forms such as biomechanical motion to electrical energy.

Gallium nitride (GaN) is regarded as one of the most technologically relevant semiconducting materials and is intrinsically linked with optoelectronic elements such as blue lasers and light-emitting-diodes (LEDs).

Horacio Espinosa, one of the lead authors of the study said: "Although nanowires are one-dimensional nanostructures, some properties – such as piezoelectricity, the linear form of electro-mechanical coupling – are three-dimensional in nature."

These results are particularly exciting in relation to the recent demonstration of nanogenerators based on GaN nanowires, for powering of self-powered nanodevices.

Posted by Ben Evans