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Updated: May 21, 2026

Scanning-probe Single-electron Capacitance Spectroscopy
Published on: July 30, 2013
Anomalous high capacitance in a coaxial single nanowire capacitor
Zheng Liu1, Yongjie Zhan, Gang Shi
1Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA.
Abstract:
Building entire multiple-component devices on single nanowires is a promising strategy for miniaturizing electronic applications. Here we demonstrate a single nanowire capacitor with a coaxial asymmetric Cu-Cu(2)O-C structure, fabricated using a two-step chemical reaction and vapour deposition method. The capacitance measured from a single nanowire device corresponds to ~140 μF cm(-2), exceeding previous reported values for metal-insulator-metal micro-capacitors and is more than one order of magnitude higher than what is predicted by classical electrostatics. Quantum mechanical calculations indicate that this unusually high capacitance may be attributed to a negative quantum capacitance of the dielectric-metal interface, enhanced significantly at the nanoscale.
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