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 SnO2 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.