A technique for controlling the alignment of silver nanowires with an electric field

Highly aligned silver nanowire arrays are synthesized under direct current electric field (DCEF) treatment by a solid state ionics method without any template at normal temperature and pressure. The degree of alignment of the synthesized nanowires increases with increase of the DCEF strength. The mechanism of the effect of the DCEF on the nanowire alignment is discussed briefly. Moreover, the alignment of the individual nanowires in a bundle is further proved by observing the polarization dependence in the experiment of the polarized reflection measurements.