The resistance R of a high density network of 6 nm diameter Bi wires in porous Vycor glass is studied in order to observe its expected semiconductor behavior. R increases from 300 K down to 0.3 K. Below 4 K, where R varies approximately as ln(1/T), the order-of-magnitude of the resistance rise, as well as the behavior of the magnetoresistance are consistent with localization and electron-electron interaction theories of a one-dimensional disordered conductor in the presence of strong spin-orbit scattering. We show that this behaviour and the surface-enhanced carrier density may mask the proposed semimetal-to-semiconductor transition for quantum Bi wires.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9910241,
title = {Electronic Transport in a Three-dimensional Network of 1-D Bismuth Quantum Wires},
author = {T. E. Huber and M. J. Graf},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9910241},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
19 pages total, 4 figures; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B