Determination of the specific resistance of individual freestanding ZnO nanowires with the low energy electron point source microscope

A low energy electron point source microscope is used to determine the electrical conductivity of freestanding ZnO nanowires. The nanowires were contacted with a manipulation tip and I-V curves were taken at different wire lengths. From those, the specific resistance was calculated and separated from the contact resistance. By comparing the specific resistances of ZnO nanowires with diameters between 1100 and 48 nm, a large surface contribution for the thin nanowires was found. A geometric model for separation between surface and bulk contributions is given. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.