The current image of a single CuO nanowire studied by conductive atomic force microscopy

In this paper, the current image of a single CuO nanowire was measured by conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM), which showed stripy patterns along the length of the nanowire. The I-V properties and Kelvin probe force microscopy measurements indicated that in the current image, the current varied with the barrier height of the Schottky barrier between the C-AFM tip and CuO nanowire, which varied with the surface states. Therefore, the current image represented the surface states image of the CuO nanowire. The origin of the stripy patterns and the features of the surface states image were also discussed.