Magnetic nanowires are important for storage device applications. So far cobalt, gold, copper and cobalt-copper nanowire arrays have been fabricated. These are made by electrochemical deposition fabrication technique and less than20 nm diameter nanowire arrays have been fabricated.

Silicon nanowires are grown with the aid of a nucleating metal such as gold, zinc, iron and silane (SiH4) as the silicon source. In many cases Vapor-Liquid-Solid (VLS) is the assumed growth mechanism. in the whisker/crystal growth phenomenon catalyst is found at tip of nanowire. Silicon nanowires can also be made by CVD of silane (thermal decomposition of silane) or by various methods of integrating catalyst such as electron-beam evaporation of Au islands onto SiO2 coated Si substrate or Zn deposited onto an electrochemically etched porous Si substrate using porous Fe/SiO2 gel used as substrate. It is possible to successfully grow 20 nm – 30 nm diameter wire arrays.