title: Low-temperature electronic transport in single K(0.27)MnO(2)·0.5H(2)O nanowires: enhanced electron-electron interaction.
abstract: The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics and electrical resistivity of isolated potassium manganese oxide (K(0.27)MnO(2)·0.5H(2)O) nanowires prepared by a simple hydrothermal method were investigated over a wide temperature range from 300 to 4 K. With lowering temperature, a transition from linear to nonlinear I-V curves was observed around 50 K, and a clear zero bias anomaly (i.e., Coulomb gap-like structure) appeared on the differential conductance (dI/dV) curves, possibly due to enhanced electron-electron interaction at low temperatures. The temperature dependence of resistivity, [Formula: see text], follows the Efros-Shklovskii (ES) law, as expected in the presence of a Coulomb gap. Here we note that both the ES law and Coulomb blockade can in principle lead to a reduced zero bias conductance at low temperatures; in this study we cannot exclude the possibility of Coulomb-blockade transport in the measured nanowires, especially in the low-temperature range. It is still an open question how to pin down the origin of the observed reduction to a Coulomb gap (ES law) or Coulomb blockade.
authors: College of Physics Science, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, People's Republic of China.
authors: Y Z
authors: YZ
authors: Long
authors: Z H
authors: ZH
authors: Yin
authors: Z J
authors: ZJ
authors: Chen
authors: A Z
authors: AZ
authors: Jin
authors: C Z
authors: CZ
authors: Gu
authors: H T
authors: HT
authors: Zhang
authors: X H
authors: XH
authors: Chen