Fabrication and alignment of wires in two dimensions

Arrays of high-aspect ratio "wires", assembled from organically functionalized silver nanocrystals, were found to form spontaneously at the air/water interface. For all cases, the wires were 1 particle high, although the width of the wires could be controlled from 20 to 300 nm with a given set of wires characterized by a narrow (15-25%) distribution of widths. The interwire separation distance, as well as the alignment of the wires, could be controlled via compression of the wires using the Langmuir technique. The wires were found to maintain their structure and alignment up to interwire separation distances of less than 10 nm.