Figure 3. Characterization of fabricated nanostructures.

Temperature-dependent structure formation observed by scanning electron microscopy. Fabricated nanostructures are etched by dichloromethane and dispersed on glass prior to imaging. (a), Nanowires can be converted into (b), nanosprings, (c), nanoshell-embedded rods, (d), nanopeapods, (e), nanochains and (f), core-shell nanospheres. Sizes of fabricated nanostructures depend on initial nanowire thickness and are 200–300 nm for all images. FIB was used to obtain representative cross-sectional images of fabricated nanowires, chains and core-shell spheres (inset).