Single-crystalline, transparent conducting ZnO nanowires were obtained simply by Ti plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII). Electrical transport characterizations demonstrate that the n-type conduction of ZnO nanowire could be tuned by appropriate Ti-PIII. With increasing the energy of PIII, the resistivity of ZnO decreases from 4 × 102 Ω·cm to 3.3 × 10-3 Ω·cm, indicating a semiconductor-metal transition. The failure-current densities of the metallic ZnO could be up to 2.75×107 A/cm2. Therefore, this facile method may provide an inexpensive alternative to ITO as transparent conducting oxide materials.(journal of applied physics: communication)