Fabrication of InSb-core/alumina-sheath nanocables Youwen Yang a,b , Liang Li a , Xiaohu Huang a , Min Ye a,b , Yucheng Wu a,b , Guanghai Li a, ⁎ a Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, P.R. China b College of Material Science and Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, P.R. China Received 12 July 2005; accepted 21 September 2005 Available online 10 October 2005 Abstract An easy and effective method for fabricating InSb-core/alumina-sheath nanocables by simple chemical etching of the pulsed electrodeposited InSb nanowire array in anodic alumina membrane has been reported for the first time. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy analyses show that the InSb core is single crystalline along [100] crystal direction, and the sheath is an amorphous alumina. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: InSb; Nanocable; Chemical etching; Anodic alumina membrane 1. Introduction The discovery of carbon nanotubes [1] has attracted much interest in the synthesis and investigations of various one- dimensional nanosystems. Among them coaxial cable-struc- tured materials have received great attention as potential nanoelectronic components. Recently much progress has been made in fabricating a variety of nanocables, such as C-NT based nanocables [2–4], CdS/Si core/shell nanocable by thermal evaporation [5], TiO 2 /SiO 2 nanocable arrays by vapor phase method [6], and other metal and semiconductor nanocables by carbothermal reduction [7], electrochemical deposition [8], and template-engaged approach [9]. Comparing to the other methods, the template synthesis method based on the anodic alumina membrane (AAM) is popular featuring with effective and inexpensive [10]. There are many papers discussed the fabrication and characterization of the AAM [11–14], and several groups [15–17] reported the dissolution character of empty AAM in different solutions, in which alumina nanowires and nanotubes were obtained. However, there are few reports concerning the dissolution character of the AAM filled with nanomaterial. In this letter, we report the fabrication of single crystalline InSb-core/alumina-sheath nanocables using pulsed electrodeposition and subsequently controlling etching technique for the first time. 2. Experimental AAM template with 60 nm pore diameter was prepared using a two-step anodization process [18,19]. The pulsed elec- trodeposition of the InSb nanowire arrays was performed in a Materials Letters 60 (2006) 569 – 571 www.elsevier.com/locate/matlet ⁎ Corresponding author. Fax: +86 551 5591434. E-mail address: ghli@issp.ac.cn (G. Li). Fig. 1. XRD patter of InSb nanowire array. 0167-577X/$ - see front matter © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2005.09.036