Nanowires defects, investigation of opportunity of early detection

Аuthors

Rusyaev N. N.^*, Spiridonov S. V.^**

Kazan National Research Technical University named after A.N. Tupolev, 10, Karl Marks str., Kazan, 420111, Russia

*e-mail: roosnick@kipmea.kstu-kai.ru
**e-mail: com-m-a-i-l@yandex.ru

Abstract

This paper is devoted to investigation of possibility of defect detection in nanoconductors based on their transport property changes. The detection of nanodefects is a significant challenge, because it requires studying each individual sample along all stages of the engineering process. For effective checkout of the produced devices parameters there is a need for more fast, simple, and productive means for the defect detection. In this paper we investigate the possibility of detecting nanodefects according to their manifestation in the transport properties of a conductor. One of the possible types of such defects is the «conductor-defect-conductor» transition where the defect represents a suspended one- dimensional chain of atoms. The reason for studying defects of this type is rather high probability of emergence of such defects during operation under the mechanical or thermal impacts, and the possibility of occurrence of such defects in various manufacturing processes.
The investigation was performed by mathematical modeling under Atomistix Virtual Nano Lab software. For the calculations we used two theoretical methods: EHT (Extended Huckel) and the method of Classic Potential. Based on these methods the models of defect-free and defective conductors were developed.
The defect in these models was considered as an approximation to the model of a partial break of a conductor. The parameters for the comparative analysis included following characteristics: the difference of electron density, the difference of electrostatic potentials, molecular spectra, current-voltage curves. The measurements were performed on the two-electrode scheme with external voltage varying in the range from −2 to 2 V. Comparative analysis of the electronic structures and transport properties showed that there were differences sufficient enough for defect detection based on current-voltage characteristic changes.
Nevertheless, it is necessary to keep in mind that we have investigated only one type of such nanodefects. In our case the defect conductive chain was considered to be perpendicular to main conductor side, and to have only methods for studying other types of defects.

Keywords:

nanotechnologies, conductors, defects, transport properties

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