Cotunneling transport in ultra-narrow gold nanowire bundles

• Published in: Nano research 2013-09, Vol.6 (9), p.644-651
• Main Authors: Loubat, Anaïs, Escoffier, Walter, Lacroix, Lise-Marie, Viau, Guillaume, Tan, Reasmey, Carrey, Julian, Warot-Fonrose, Bénédicte, Raquet, Bertrand
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atomic/Molecular Structure and Spectra; Biomedicine; Biotechnology; Bundles; Charge transport; Charging; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed Matter; Condensed Matter Physics; Coulomb friction; Electrodes; Electrons; Gold; High temperature; Localization; Low temperature; Materials Science; Nanocomposites; Nanomaterials; Nanostructure; Nanotechnology; Nanowires; Physics; Research Article; Superconductivity; Transmission electron microscopy; 库仑阻塞; 电压监测; 电子波函数; 电荷传输; 线束; 运输; 金纳米线; 黄金
• ISSN: 1998-0124; 1998-0000
• DOI: 10.1007/s12274-013-0340-8

We investigate the charge transport in close-packed ultra-narrow （1.5 nm diameter） gold nanowires stabilized by oleylamine ligands. We give evidence of charging effects in the weakly coupled one-dimensional （1D） nanowires, monitored by the temperature and the bias voltage. At low temperature, in the Coulomb blockade regime, the current flow reveals an original cooperative multi-hopping process between 1D-segments of Au-NWs, minimising the charging energy cost. Above the Coulomb blockade threshold voltage and at high temperature, the charge transport evolves into a sequential tunneling regime between the nearest- nanowires. Our analysis shows that the effective length of the Au-NWs inside the bundle is similar to the 1D localisation length of the electronic wave function （of the order of 120 nm _＋ 20 nm）, but almost two orders of magnitude larger than the diameter of the nanowire. This result confirms the high structural quality of the Au-NW segments.