US Patent 7569847 - Uniform diameter core-shell nanowire heterostructures

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7569847.html

This patent from the University of California system has priority going back to 2001 and teaches the fabrication of uniform arrays of nanowires. However, one bizarre thing about some of the claims (such as claim 1 below) is that they claim a single nanowire making the limitation regarding the diameter uniformity of a population of nanowires seemingly meaningless. One earlier article published in 1999 describing core/shell semiconductor nanowires is "CdS/CdSe core/sheath nanostructures obtained from CdS nanowires," Chem. Commun., 1999, 1969 - 1970, DOI: 10.1039/a905669f.

1. A nanowire, comprising: a core of a first material at least partially surrounded by a sheath of a compositionally different non-amorphous material;

wherein said nanowire is configured to be selected from a population of nanowires, said population of nanowires having a substantially uniform inter-wire diameter of less than 50% RMS.