Determination of the photocarrier diffusion length in intrinsic Ge nanowires.

We quantitatively determined the photocarrier diffusion length in intrinsic Ge nanowires (NWs) using scanning photocurrent microscopy. Specifically, the spatial mapping of one-dimensional decay in the photocurrent along the Ge NWs under the scanning laser beam (λ= 532 nm) was analyzed in a one-dimensional diffusion rate equation to extract the diffusion length of ~4-5 μm. We further attempt to determine the photocarrier lifetime under a finite bias across the Ge NWs, and discuss the role of surface scattering.