Charge transport in single CuO nanowires

Abstract

Charge transport in single crystal, p-type cupric oxide (CuO) nanowire (NW) was studied through temperature based (120 K–400 K) current-voltage measurements. CuO NW with a diameter of 85 nm was attached to Au electrodes 2.25 μm apart, using dielectrophoresis. At low electrical field (<0.89 × 103 V/cm), an ohmic conduction is observed with an activation energy of 272 meV. The injected electrons fill traps with an average energy, ET = 26.6 meV and trap density, NT = 3.4 × 1015 cm−3. After the traps are saturated, space charge limited current mechanism becomes dominant. For 120 K ≤ T ≤ 210 K phonon scattering limits mobility. For T ≥ 220 K, a thermally activated mobility is observed and is attributed to small polaron hopping with an activation energy of 44 meV. This mechanism yields a hole mobility of 0.0015 cm2/V s and an effective hole concentration of 4 × 1018 cm−3 at 250 K.