Size and surface effects on the electrical properties of metallic nanowires

The following three topics are discussed in this thesis: (1) Investigation of the electrical properties for copper (Cu), silver (Ag), and gold (Au) nanowires; (2) Development of a theory for size and surface effects on the electrical properties of metallic nanowires; (3) Identifying contamination effects on the electrical measurements of metallic nanowires.;For polycrystalline Cu nanowires, electrical resistivity was found to increase when the wire widths decrease as a result of surface and grain boundary scattering effects. In order to isolate the effects of surface scattering from grain boundary scattering, single crystalline trapezoidal Ag nanowires were self-assembled on vicinal silicon substrate. Fuchs-Sondheimer theory was extended to model surface scattering effect on the electrical resistivity of the single crystalline trapezoidal Ag nanowires. The theoretically calculated resistivity was found to increase with decreasing wire cross-sectional area and the measured resistivities were found to be in good agreement. Finally, size and surface effects were also studied for the temperature coefficient of resistance for Cu nanowires.;Current-voltage failure measurements for Au and Cu nanowires were found to exhibit higher failure current densities when the wire widths decrease for nanowires with a constant thickness. As a case study, the width dependent failure current density of Cu nanowires was modeled with the finite element method. The increase in failure current density was attributed to the heat transfer between the nanowire contact area and the substrate. In addition, the electromigration experiments were performed for Au and Cu nanowires with a scanning electron microscope to identify nanowire defect formation. The mean-time-to-failure was measured and applied to Black's Law to determine the activation energy for Au and Cu nanowires with sub-100 nm dimensions.;Auger electron spectroscopy analysis on Cu electromigration indicates surface migration of Cu, C, and O atoms along the nanowire surface from the applied electrical stressing. In addition, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy measurements indicated that C, C-O-C and C=O were adsorbed on the surface as synthesized Au nanowires. A non-linear curve of resistance versus the surface area to volume ratios was measured and indicates that contamination influences the resistance of Au nanowires.