The Effect of an Incident Electron Beam on the I–V Characteristics of a Au-ZnSe Nanowire-Au Nanostructure

In order to the modify electron transport property of a metal-semiconductor nanowire(NW)-metal (M-S-M) nanostructure, the effect of high-energy electron irradiation on the current-voltage (I–V) characteristics of M-S-M nanostructure is investigated by in situ transmission electron microscopy. Experimentally measured I–V characteristics of an M-S-M nanostructure can be obviously modified under electron beam irradiation. The current increases rapidly due to increase of the carrier densities resulting from the electron-hole pair excitation in the NW irradiated by the electron beam. If the electron beam is focused on the NW (M-S) nanocontact, the electrons in the Au electrode are excited to higher energy states above the height of the Schottky barrier that becomes transparent to the conduction electrons. As a result, the nonlinear to linear I–V characteristics can be observed. The experimentally revealed I–V characteristics corresponding to transformation from the rectification to Ohm strongly suggest that the intrinsic transport property of the M-S nanocontact can be completely modified by irradiation of the high-energy electron beam.