title: Three-dimensional representation of curved nanowires.
abstract: Nanostructures, such as nanowires, nanotubes and nanocoils, can be described in many cases as quasi one-dimensional curved objects projecting in three-dimensional space. A parallax method to construct the correct three-dimensional geometry of such one-dimensional nanostructures is presented. A series of scanning electron microscope images was acquired at different view angles, thus providing a set of image pairs that were used to generate three-dimensional representations using a matlab program. An error analysis as a function of the view angle between the two images is presented and discussed. As an example application, the importance of knowing the true three-dimensional shape of boron nanowires is demonstrated; without the nanowire's correct length and diameter, mechanical resonance data cannot provide an accurate estimate of Young's modulus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Dikin
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fridman
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Ruoff