Manipulating Quantum Interference Effect and Magnetotransport of ZnO Nanowires through Interfacial Doping

ZnO possesses outstanding excitonic properties but suffers from moderate electron transport properties, to construct a high-performance electron and exciton system on the same unit of a ZnO nanostructure is still a challenge. Gifting ZnO nanowires (NWs) with unique interfacial doping profiles holds the key to build a freeway of carriers, by introducing a tubular, high-mobility conductive channel built in and shielded by the surrounding ZnO. For this purpose, we prepared interfacial Al-doped (IAD) and interfacial natively-doped (IND) ZnO NWs by introducing atomic-layer interfacial-doping between the two steps of CVD growth. Electron transport and magnetotransport behaviors of the NWs were systematically studied. By virtue of the unique architecture, a series of quantum interference effects are clearly observed in the IAD ZnO NWs, including weak localization, universal conductance fluctuation and Altshuler-Aronov-Spivak oscillations. The phase-coherence length (L_φ) of electrons exceeds 100 nm, much longer than those in the IND NWs and most conventionally-doped ZnO. The ability to efficiently manipulate a variety of quantum interference effects in ZnO NWs is very desirable for the applications in nano-optoelectronics, nano-&quantum-electronics and solid-state quantum computing.