Surface-architecture-controlled ZnO nanowires were grown using a vapor transport method on various ZnO buffer film coated c-plane sapphire substrates with or without Au catalysts. The ZnO nanowires that were grown showed two different types of geometric properties: corrugated ZnO nanowires having a relatively smaller diameter and a strong deep-level emission photoluminescence (PL) peak and smooth ZnO nanowires having a relatively larger diameter and a weak deep-level emission PL peak. The surface morphology and size-dependent tunable electronic transport properties of the ZnO nanowires were characterized using a nanowire field effect transistor (FET) device structure. The FETs made from smooth ZnO nanowires with a larger diameter exhibited negative threshold voltages, indicating n-channel depletion-mode behavior, whereas those made from corrugated ZnO nanowires with a smaller diameter had positive threshold voltages, indicating n-channel enhancement-mode behavior.

Thermal transport behavior in nanostructures has become increasingly important for understanding and designing next generation electronic and energy devices. This has fueled vibrant research targeting both the causes and ability to induce extraordinary reductions of thermal conductivity in crystalline materials, which has predominantly been achieved by understanding that the phonon mean free path (MFP) is limited by the characteristic size of crystalline nanostructures, known as the boundary scattering or Casimir limit. Herein, by using a highly sensitive measurement system, we show that crystalline Si (c-Si) nanotubes (NTs) with shell thickness as thin as ∼5 nm exhibit a low thermal conductivity of ∼1.1 W m(-1) K(-1). Importantly, this value is lower than the apparent boundary scattering limit and is even about 30% lower than the measured value for amorphous Si (a-Si) NTs with similar geometries. This finding diverges from the prevailing general notion that amorphous materials represent the lower limit of thermal transport but can be explained by the strong elastic softening effect observed in the c-Si NTs, measured as a 6-fold reduction in Young's modulus compared to bulk Si and nearly half that of the a-Si NTs. These results illustrate the potent prospect of employing the elastic softening effect to engineer lower than amorphous, or subamorphous, thermal conductivity in ultrathin crystalline nanostructures.

We investigated the passivation effects on the electrical characteristics of ZnO nanowire field effect transistors (FETs) under the various oxygen environments of ambient air, dry O2, and vacuum. When the ZnO nanowire FET was exposed to more oxygen, the current decreased and the threshold voltage shifted to the positive gate bias direction, due to electrons trapping to the oxygen molecules at the nanowire surface. On the contrary, the electrical properties of the nanowire FET remained unchanged under different environments with passivation by a polymethyl methacrylate layer, which demonstrates the importance of surface passivation for ZnO nanowire-based electronic device applications.