Quantum Transport Properties of Ni/Si Nanowire for Nano-Electronic Device Application.

One dimensional silicon based metallic heterostructure nanowires (NWs) have attracted a large attention due to its potential application as electron nano-connectors in silicon based nano-electronic devices. In the present work, we have considered Ni/Si core/shell nanowire, where Si shells are built around very thin Ni core. The negative binding energy value in NW shows its stability. We have studied electronic band structure of the nanowire, which shows metallic behavior due to major contribution of Ni-3d orbital. The quantum conductance is observed to be 5G0, which is in good agreement with zero bias transmission spectra of Ni/Si-NW. Furthermore, we have calculated IV-characteristics of the nanowire in range of -1.5V to 1.5V. The linear behavior upto ±1.0V shows ohmic characteristic of the core/shell nanowire. Highly magnitude of current value of 131.94 μA at 1.5 bias voltage and ohmic behavior attributes its possible application in nano-electronic devices as electron connector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]