Electrical, structural, and optical properties of sulfurized Sn-doped In(2)O(3) nanowires

Sn-doped In(2)O(3) nanowires have been grown on Si via the vapor-liquid-solid mechanism at 800 °C and then exposed to H(2)S between 300 to 600 °C. We observe the existence of cubic bixbyite In(2)O(3) and hexagonal SnS(2) after processing the Sn:In(2)O(3) nanowires to H(2)S at 300 °C but also cubic bixbyite In(2)O(3), which remains dominant, and the emergence of rhombohedral In(2)(SO(4))(3) at 400 °C. The resultant nanowires maintain their metallic-like conductivity, and exhibit photoluminescence at 3.4 eV corresponding to band edge emission from In(2)O(3). In contrast, Sn:In(2)O(3) nanowires grown on glass at 500 °C can be treated under H(2)S only below 200 °C which is important for the fabrication of Cu(2)S/Sn:In(2)O(3) core-shell p-n junctions on low-cost transparent substrates such as glass suitable for quantum dot-sensitized solar cells.