Experimental and Theoretical Evaluations of the Galvanomagnetic Effect in an Individual Bismuth Nanowire

The galvanomagnetic effect is evaluated experimentally and theoretically in an individual bismuth nanowire encapsulated within a quartz template. A small section of the side surface of the encapsulated bismuth nanowire is exposed using focused ion beam processing, and a total of six carbon film electrodes are fabricated on the exposed nanowire surface by in situ deposition in order to be able to perform electrical measurements on the nanowire. The results show that the galvanomagnetic effect in the nanowire is affected by carrier collisions at the nanowire boundary; this is particularly the case at low temperatures. The Hall mobilities of electrons and holes are determined based on the measured Hall coefficient and magnetoresistivity values. It is found that the carrier mobility in the bismuth nanowire is lower than that in bulk bismuth and that it plateaus at low temperatures, as predicted by the calculation model used in the study, which takes into account the carrier mean free path limitation imposed by the small diameter of the nanowire.