Formation and characterization of zno/a-c core-shell nanowires

Zinc oxide (ZnO)/amorphous carbon (a-C) core-shell nanowires have been prepared by sequential thermal evaporation and plasma deposition processes. The core-shell nanowires are composed of single-crystalline ZnO nanowire cores and uniformly coated a-C shells. This approach enables us to control the thickness of the a-C shell with a resolution in the nanometer range. It was observed that there were no structural changes to the ZnO cores, due to the induced plasma effects during the a-C coating. The electrical properties of the prepared ZnO/a-C nanowires were characterized by fabricating single nanowire field effect transistors (FETs), which were superior to the electrical transport properties of the ZnO nanowire FETs. This leads to the prospect of novel nanodevice development, due to potential advantages, such as the addition or modification of chemical functional groups to the a-C shell.