Crucial role of doping dynamics on transport properties of Sb-doped SnO₂ nanowires

Impurity doping on semiconductor nanowires grown by vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism remains an important challenge. Here we demonstrate the importance of doping dynamics to control the transport properties of Sb-doped SnO₂ nanowires. Sb doping decreased the resistivity of SnO ₂ nanowires down to 10-3 cm range, while there was the lower bound of resistivity even increasing further the dopant concentration from supplied source. We found that the doping limitation is related to the re-evaporation events of dopant through vapor-solid growth process rather than VLS process. Thus understanding the dopant incorporation dynamics is essential to control the transport properties of SnO₂ nanowires by impurity doping.