title: Diameter-dependent electronic transport properties of Au-catalyst/Ge-nanowire Schottky diodes.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California 94551, USA. fleonar@sandia.gov
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Léonard
authors.forename: A Alec
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Talin
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Swartzentruber
authors.forename: S T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Picraux