US Patent 7569503 - Laser annealing of nanowire thin films

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7569503.html

Various nanowire materials have been shown to have electron mobilities several times that of silicon offering the possibility of increasing the speed of electronic devices. However, techniques need to be developed to integrate nanowire semiconductors with traditional semiconductor substrates. This patent from Nanosys is based on the discovery that nanowires have a lower melting temperature than bulk semiconductor materials which allows a low energy laser annealing method to be achieved. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method for annealing at least one nanowire on a specimen, wherein the at least one nanowire comprises a core and at least one shell layer disposed about the core, the method comprising irradiating portions of the at least one nanowire on the specimen with at least a first laser having a laser fluence of less than about 100 mJ/cm2.