Focused ion beam processing to fabricate ohmic contact electrodes on a bismuth nanowire for Hall measurements

Ohmic contact electrodes for four-wire resistance and Hall measurements were fabricated on an individual single-crystal bismuth nanowire encapsulated in a cylindrical quartz template. Focused ion beam processing was utilized to expose the side surfaces of the bismuth nanowire in the template, and carbon and tungsten electrodes were deposited on the bismuth nanowire in situ to achieve electrical contacts. The temperature dependence of the four-wire resistance was successfully measured for the bismuth nanowire, and a difference between the resistivities of the two-wire and four-wire methods was observed. It was concluded that the two-wire method was unsuitable for estimation of the resistivity due to the influence of contact resistance, even if the magnitude of the bismuth nanowire resistance was greater than the kilo-ohm order. Furthermore, Hall measurement of a 4-μm-diameter bismuth microwire was also performed as a trial, and the evaluated temperature dependence of the carrier mobility was in agreement with that for bulk bismuth, which indicates that the carrier mobility was successfully measured using this technique. PACS: 81.07.Gf.