Engineering of Bi2Se3 nanowires by laser cutting

We present a method to control the length and diameter of Bi2Se3 nanowires through laser-cutting. Nanowires of the topologically insulating and thermoelectric material Bi2Se3 were grown using the vapor-liquid-solid method, and cut using a 532-nm-laser operating at a minimum power of 1 μW. The cutting process can be controlled through laser intensity and exposure time, and is based upon evaporation of Se from the nanowires. This method has many applications from pure research to device engineering.