We found that the electronic transport property of SnSe single crystals was sensitive to oxygen content. Semiconducting SnSe single crystals were obtained by using Sn of grain form as a starting material while powder Sn resulted in metallic SnSe. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis revealed that the surfaces of raw Sn were oxidized, where the volume fraction was relatively low in grain Sn. This demonstrates that contamination of oxygen causes metallic behavior in grown SnSe single crystals.
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