Cathodoluminescent and electrical properties of an individual ZnO nanowire with oxygen vacancies

A single ZnO nanowire with intrinsic oxygen vacancies is utilized to fabricate four-contact device with focus ion beam lithography technique. Cathodoluminescent spectra indicate strong near-UV and green emission at both room temperature and low temperatures. Experimental measurement shows the temperature-dependent conductivity of the ZnO nanowire at low temperatures (below 100 K). The further theoretical analysis confirms that weak localization plays an important role in the electrical transport, which is attributed to the surface states induced by plenty of oxygen vacancies in ZnO nanowire.