Correlating Electronic Transport to Atomic Structures in Self-Assembled Quantum Wires

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• 作者：Shengyong Qin ; Tae-Hwan Kim ; Yanning Zhang ; Wenjie Ouyang ; Hanno H. Weitering ; Chih-Kang Shih ; Arthur P. Baddorf ; Ruqian Wu ; An-Ping Li
• 刊名：Nano Letters
• 出版年：2012
• 出版时间：February 8, 2012
• 年：2012
• 卷：12
• 期：2
• 页码：938-942
• 全文大小：374K
• 年卷期：v.12,no.2(February 8, 2012)
• ISSN：1530-6992

文摘

Quantum wires, as a smallest electronic conductor, are expected to be a fundamental component in all quantum architectures. The electronic conductance in quantum wires, however, is often dictated by structural instabilities and electron localization at the atomic scale. Here we report on the evolutions of electronic transport as a function of temperature and interwire coupling as the quantum wires of GdSi₂ are self-assembled on Si(100) wire-by-wire. The correlation between structure, electronic properties, and electronic transport are examined by combining nanotransport measurements, scanning tunneling microscopy, and density functional theory calculations. A metal鈥搃nsulator transition is revealed in isolated nanowires, while a robust metallic state is obtained in wire bundles at low temperature. The atomic defects lead to electron localizations in isolated nanowire, and interwire coupling stabilizes the structure and promotes the metallic states in wire bundles. This illustrates how the conductance nature of a one-dimensional system can be dramatically modified by the environmental change on the atomic scale.

Keywords:

Electronic transport; nanowire; defects; electronic coupling; localization; electronic density of states; scanning tunneling microscopy