Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2011
The pressure filling of anodic alumina templates with molten bismuth has been used to synthesize single crystalline bismuth nanowires with diameters ranging from 7 to 200nm and lengths of 50μm. The nanowires are separated by dissolving the template, and electrodes are affixed to single Bi nanowires on Si substrates. A focused ion beam (FIB) technique is used first to sputter off the oxide from the nanowires with a Ga ion beam and then to deposit Pt without breaking vacuum. The resistivity of a 200nm diameter Bi nanowire is found to be only slightly greater than the bulk value, while preliminary measurements indicate that the resistivity of a 100nm diameter nanowire is significantly larger than bulk. The temperature dependence of the resistivity of a 100nm nanowire is modeled by considering the temperature dependent band parameters and the quantized band structure of the nanowires. This theoretical model is consistent with the experimental results.