Synthesis and characterization of helical multi-shell gold nanowires

Suspended gold nanowires were made in an ultra-high vacuum. The finest of them was 0.6 nanometer in diameter and 6 nanometers in length. By high-resolution electron microscopy, they were shown to have a multi-shell structure composed of coaxial tubes. Each tube consists of helical atom rows coiled round the wire axis. The difference between the numbers of atom rows in outer and inner shells is seven, resulting in magic shell-closing numbers.