Photocurrent and photovoltaic characteristics of copper sulfide nanowires grown by a hydrothermal method

Abstract We synthesized p-type copper sulfide (CuS) nanowires by hydrothermal method using a polymer as structure directing agent. Single nanowire devices were then fabricated and hole concentration was measured to be ~4×10 18  cm −3 . Schottky contacts between the nanowires and metal electrodes have been distinctively imaged by a scanning photocurrent microscopic method. As the synthesized CuS nanowires were much longer than the diffusion length, the nanowires were intentionally broken down to demonstrate a photovoltaic device utilizing the Schottky contact with Cu electrodes.