title: Influence of temperature and illumination on surface barrier of individual ZnO nanowires.
abstract: The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of single ZnO nanowires were measured varying with temperature and illumination. A model of the ZnO nanowire sandwiched by back-to-back diodes was utilized to explain the experimental data. Simulations of the I-V curves exhibited that the surface barrier height was independent of temperature from 180 to 290 K. This work also shows that the larger the incident laser power is, the smaller the contact surface barrier height will be. The photon induced reduction in the surface barrier height is attributed to the photogenerated holes, which result in a shielding effect on the surface trapped electrons.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, Department of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China. liaozm@pku.edu.cn
authors.forename: Zhi-Min
authors.initials: ZM
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.forename: Chong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Yang-Bo
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Jing-Min
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Da-Peng
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Yu