Resistivity of Endotaxial Silicide Nanowires Measured with STM Nanoprobe

We present in situ UHV measurements of the resistivity of self-assembled endotaxial FeSi$_{2}$ nanowires (NWs) on Si(110) using a variable-spacing two-point method with an STM tip and a fixed contact pad. Boundary scattering causes the resistivity to vary with NW width as: $\rho _{NW}$ = 200 uohmcm at 12 nm and 300 uohmcm at 2 nm. The relative weakness of boundary scattering is attributed to a high concentration of point defects in the bulk FeSi$_{2}$ structure. It is remarkable that the defect concentration persists in very small structures, and is not changed by surface oxidation.