Y-branched Bi nanowires with metal-semiconductor junction behavior

摘要

Y-branched Bi nanowires (NWs) embedded in anodic aluminum oxide templates were synthesized by electrochemical deposition. Transmission electron microscope observations revealed that the "stem" and the "branches" of the Y-branched Bi NWs are about 80 and 50 nm in diameter, respectively. Selected area electron diffraction studies showed that both the stem and the branches are single crystalline. Current-voltage measurement revealed that the parallel Y-branched Bi NWs have characteristics of conventional metal-semiconductor junctions. Our approach to produce one-dimensional metal-semiconductor junctions using Y-branched NWs consisting of only one kind of semimetal and without any external doping can be exploited to create metal-semiconductor junctions of other semimetals, which may find various applications in nanodevices.