Nanojunctions in conducting polypyrrole single nanowire made by focused electron beam: Charge transport characteristics

Abstract

A focused electron (E)-beam with various doses was irradiated on the intended positions of conducting polypyrrole (PPy) single nanowire (NW) to fabricate nanojunctions. The current-voltage characteristics and their temperature dependence of the PPy single NW with nanojunctions were measured and analyzed. By increasing the E-beam dose and the number of nanojunctions, the current level of the single NW was dramatically decreased, and the conductance gap became more severe as the temperature decreased. The charge transport behavior varied from three-dimensional variable range hopping to fluctuation induced tunneling models, depending on the dose of focused E-beam. From micro-Raman spectra, the focused E-beam irradiation induced the de-doped states and conformational modification of polymer chains in the nanojunctions. The results suggest that the nanojunctions made by focused E-beam acted as a quasi-potential barrier for charge conduction in the conducting PPy single NW. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3609068]