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

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 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 eV with increasing bias from 0.2 to 1 V. The corresponding values of thermal activation energies are 0.172 and 0.06 eV below the conduction band for 180–295 and 77.4–180 K, respectively. This semiconductor-like behavior may result from the larger number of surface defects or localized states in the amorphorized PbTiO₃. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]