Diameter-dependent electronic transport properties of Au-catalyst/Ge-nanowire Schottky diodes.
We present electronic transport measurements in individual Au-catalyst/Ge-nanowire interfaces demonstrating the presence of a Schottky barrier. Surprisingly, the small-bias conductance density increases with decreasing diameter. Theoretical calculations suggest that this effect arises because electron-hole recombination in the depletion region is the dominant charge transport mechanism, with a diameter dependence of both the depletion width and the electron-hole recombination time. The recombination time is dominated by surface contributions and depends linearly on the nanowire diameter.
Léonard
François
F
Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California 94551, USA. fleonar@sandia.gov
Talin
A Alec
AA
Swartzentruber
B S
BS
Picraux
S T
ST