Poole–Frenkel Transport in Gold Catalyzed VLS Grown Silicon Nanowires

Evidence of Poole-Frenkel (PF) transport in vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) grown silicon nanowires is presented. Silicon nanowires were grown in a spherical cold wall catalytic chemical vapor deposition chamber using gold as a catalyst for the VLS growth process. PF transport could be a manifestation of the presence of gold atoms and clusters inside the nanowires acting as Coulombic traps. The activation energy of the process is determined as 60 meV. We also discuss the scaling behavior of PF conduction process in these nanowires.