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Updated: May 31, 2026

Seedless Growth of Bismuth Nanowire Array via Vacuum Thermal Evaporation
Published on: December 21, 2015
Step-shaped bismuth nanowires with metal-semiconductor junction characteristics
1Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 1129, Hefei, Anhui 230031, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Uniform and step-shaped Bi nanowire (NW) arrays have been synthesized by electrochemical deposition inside the uniform and step-shaped nanochannels of an anodic aluminium oxide template. These Bi NWs are highly oriented and single crystalline. The current-voltage characteristics of the parallel uniform Bi nanowires show that the contacts between Bi NWs and gold film do not make significant contributions to the I-V characteristics of the step-shaped Bi NWs. The diameters of the thick segment and the thin segment of the step-shaped Bi NWs are about 70 and 40 nm, respectively. Their current-voltage characteristics show conventional metal-semiconductor junction behaviour. The approach can be exploited to produce one-dimensional metal-semiconductor junctions using step-shaped NWs consisting of other semi-metals without any external doping, which may find various applications in nanotechnology.
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