European scientists have created silicon nanowires that are perfect, down at the single-atom level.

The identical wires have no bumps, bends, or other imperfections. The full array of nanowires is also highly parallel, and each wire is an excellent metallic conductor.

Nanowires play a key role in developing nanoelectronics applications, and silicon nanowires are particularly important because of the central function that silicon plays in the semiconductor industry and current technologies.