Fabrication of compact collateral silicon nanowires based on continuously alternating deposition

A continuously alternating deposition method capable of producing compact collateral nanowires of single crystalline silicon on a wafer scale is described. By depositing different materials (polysilicon or silicon oxide) which have different etching properties over lithographically defined sidewalls and by selectively removing the sacrificial material, those sidewalls are preserved and can serve as nanopattern masks for further processing. The resolution of this method is not limited by photolithography but by the thickness of the materials deposited. The application of compact collateral nanowires made of single crystalline silicon ranges from the fabrication of biosensors to model catalyst system.