Electrical transport properties of focused ion beam lithography Au contacts on PbTiO3 nanorods

Abstract

PbTiO3 nanorods with tetragonal phase were synthesized by hydrothermal method and heat treatment, and temperature-dependent electrical transport properties of individual PbTiO3 nanorod were investigated. The results show that the conductivities of PbTiO3 nanorods are gradually enhanced with temperature increasing from 77.4 to 295[Formula: see text]K, and exhibit the typical nonlinear I–V characteristics. The barrier height between Au electrode and nanorod is reduced from 0.137 to 0.088[Formula: see text]eV with increasing bias from 0.2 to 1[Formula: see text]V. The corresponding values of thermal activation energies are 0.172 and 0.06[Formula: see text]eV below the conduction band for 180–295 and 77.4–180[Formula: see text]K, respectively. This semiconductor-like behavior may result from the larger number of surface defects or localized states in the amorphorized PbTiO3.