Quantitative analysis of current–voltage–temperature characteristics of metal-oxide nanowires

Electrical transport in single nanowire (NW) devices arises from the interplay between intrinsic conduction properties of the NW and the transport characteristics of metal-semiconductor contact interfaces. Here, we present a framework for the quantitative analysis of current–voltage–temperature (I–V–T) characteristics of metal-oxide NWs. By analyzing experimental data obtained from a nanodevice based on a single CuO NW contacted by metal electrodes, we show that single-NW devices can be described using a metal–semiconductor–metal (M–S–M) transport model that accounts for thermionic emission and thermionic-field emission at Schottky metal-semiconductor interfaces. Through numerical implementation, we show that the M–S–M model distinguishes the electrical transport contributions of the NW from those of the two metal-semiconductor interfaces, enabling the extraction of the temperature-dependent NW resistance and activation energy. The effective interface parameters further provide qualitative insight into the non-ideal contact transport. Comparison with the commonly used large-bias approximation allows us to assess the validity and limitations of this simplified extraction method, while providing an independent cross-check of the quality of the M–S–M transport model. Overall, the proposed approach provides a general framework for disentangling intrinsic NW conduction from contact effects in temperature-dependent two-terminal measurements of single-NW semiconductor devices.