Electrical nanowelding and bottom-up nano-construction together using nanoscale solder

A new bottom-up nanowelding technique enabling the welding of complex 3D nanoarchitectures assembled from individual building blocks using nanovolumes of metal solder is reported in this work. The building blocks of gold nanowires, (Co72Pt28/Pt)n multilayer nanowires, and nanosolder Sn99Au1 alloy nanowires were successfully fabricated by a template technique. Individual metallic nanowires dispersed on Si/SiO2(100 nm) wafers were manipulated and assembled together. Conductive nanostructures were then welded together by the new electrical nanowelding technique using nanovolumes of similar or dissimilar nanosolder. At the weld sites, nanoscale volumes of a chosen metal are deposited using nanosolder of a sacrificial nanowire, which ensures that the nanoobjects to be bonded retain their structural integrity. The whole nanowelding process is clean, controllable and reliable, and ensures both mechanically strong and electrically conductive contacts. The quality check of nanoweld achieve a resistance as low as 20 omega by using Sn99Au1 alloy solder. This technique should provide a promising way to conquer the challenge of the integration obstacle for bottom-up nanotechnology.