Metal nanowires fabricated by means of magnetostrictive actuator

A new method of fabricating nanowires for electric conductance quantization studies is proposed as an alternative to the method based on converse piezoelectric effect. Commonly used for nanowire fabrication, piezoelectric actuators are expensive and require high-level voltage control signal. The method presented in this paper is based on the use of magnetostrictive actuator. Both the actuator structure and the method of the conversion factor measurement are discussed. The results of the tests of the magnetostrictive actuator are also reported. The parameters of the proposed actuator are compared with those of its piezoelectric counterpart used to date. The results of measurement confirm that the proposed actuator can be used for studying electric conductance quantization in nanowires. Presented at the X-th Symposium on Surface Physics, Prague, Czech Republic, July 11–15, 2005