Growth and electrical transport of germanium nanowires

Single crystalline germanium nanowires have been synthesized from gold nano particles based on a vapor-liquid-solid growth mechanism. Germanium powder was evaporated at 950 degreesC, and deposited onto gold nanoparticles at 50 0 degreesC using argon as a carrier gas. The diameter of the germanium nano wires ranged from 20 to 180 nm when gold thin films were utilized as the su bstrate, while the nanowires grown from 10 nm Au particles showed a narrowe r diameter distribution centered at 28 nm. The growth direction of germaniu m nanowires is along the [111] direction, determined by high resolution tra nsmission electron microscopy. Transport measurements on individual Ge nano wires indicate that the wires are heavily doped during growth and that tran sport data can be explained by the thermal fluctuation tunneling conduction model. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.