Regular Article

Temperature- and diameter-dependent electrical conductivity of nitrogen doped ZnO nanowires

¹ Key Laboratory for Microstructural Material Physics of Hebei Province, School of Science, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, P.R. China
² School of Aerospace Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, P.R. China
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, P.R. China

^a e-mail: fang@ysu.edu.cn
^b e-mail: caomaosheng@bit.edu.cn

Received: 11 April 2019
Received in final form: 25 May 2019
Published online: 10 July 2019

Abstract

A modified formula to calculate the axial conductivity of nanowires was proposed based on the one-dimensional quantum state density distribution and Boltzmann transport theory. Numerical simulations of the ZnO nanowires (ZnONWs) and Nitrogen-doped ZnO nanowires (N-ZnONWs) were implemented using data from the first principles calculation. The results indicate that ZnONWs are low-conductivity wide band-gap semiconductors owing to their low carrier concentrations at room temperature, with N-doping increasing the conductivity. The N-ZnONWs carrier concentrations increased with increasing temperature, and possessed significantly higher carrier concentrations than ZnONWs. With an increase in diameter, the ZnONWs conductivities increased, whereas the N-ZnONWs conductivities decreased.