UV light emitting transparent conducting tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) nanowires

Multifunctional single crystalline tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) nanowires with tuned Sn doping levels are synthesized via a vapor transport method. The Sn concentration in the nanowires can reach 6.4 at.% at a synthesis temperature of 840 ◦ C, significantly exceeding the Sn solubility in ITO bulks grown at comparable temperatures, which we attribute to the unique feature of the vapor–liquid–solid growth. As a promising transparent conducting oxide nanomaterial, layers of these ITO nanowires exhibit a sheet resistance as low as 6.4 �/ and measurements on individual nanowires give a resistivity of 2.4 × 10 −4 � cm with an electron density up to 2.6 × 10 20 cm −3 , while the optical transmittance in the visible regime can reach ∼80%. Under the ultraviolet excitation the ITO nanowire samples emit blue light, which can be ascribed to transitions related to defect levels. Furthermore, a room temperature ultraviolet light emission is observed in these ITO nanowires for the first time, and the exciton-related radiative process is identified by using temperature-dependent photoluminescence measurements. S Online supplementary data available from stacks.iop.org/Nano/22/195706/mmedia (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)