Bridged ZnO nanowires across trenched electrodes

Using a hydrothermal synthesis approach, large scale and laterally bridged nanowires have been grown across trenched Au/Si, Au/SiO2/Si, and ZnO/Si electrodes. This technique shows a low temperature (80 degrees C) approach for growing ZnO nanowires on a prepatterned substrate, showing its potential for integrating with silicon based technology. The I-V characteristics of the nanowires have been measured and their nonlinear behavior has been analyzed. It is suggested that the nonlinear behavior might be due to the dominant phonon scattering and the impurity involved grain boundaries in the multinanowire bridges. The bridged nanowire arrays could be useful for fabricating gas, chemical, or biochemical nanosensor arrays. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.