Growth and electrical characterization of semiconducting Ge nanowires

Self assembled Germanium nanowires' devices were fabricated in order to investigate the carrier's transport mechanism in these structures. Temperature-dependent resistance measurements exhibited a semiconducting behaviour in which the variable range hopping acts as the dominant mechanism governing the electron transport. These findings were supported by photocurrent measurements and by the low carrier's mobility obtained from a single nanowire device. The presence of a hopping process can be explained taking into account the localization of states, which in turn is generated by the disorder. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.