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The quest for new devices and the discovery of new phenomena have stimulated a surge of interest in nanometer-scale materials and devices in recent years. Many nanostructured materials exhibit novel properties and are attractive for a variety of applications including nanoelectronics, magnetic devices, chemical and biological sensors, and biological labels. The starting point is to synthesize or fabricate nanostructures with novel properties. An important fabrication technique that has been a focus in our group is electrochemical method. When combined with optical, electron-beam and focused ion beam lithography approaches, electrochemical method can fabricate novel structures and devices. Examples include:

• Metal nanowires and quantum point contacts
• Electrodes with nanogaps
• Conducting polymer nanowires and nanojunctions
 

Fig. 1 Electrochemical fabrication of an atomic scale point contact that exhibits conductance quantization.