Optical, structural and electrical properties of tin doped indium oxide thin films prepared by spray-pyrolysis technique

Abstract

Tin doped indium oxide (In 2 O 3 :Sn) or indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films have been successfully deposited by the low cost spray-pyrolysis method. Low sheet resistance and high mobility films were obtained when the films were deposited at the substrate temperature of 793 K. The direct optical bandgaps for the films deposited at 793 (a) and 753 K (b) were found to be 3.46 and 3.40 eV, respectively. Similarly, the indirect bandgaps for a-and b-type films were found to be 3.0 and 2.75 eV, respectively. The Burstein-Moss shift was observed in the films. The refractive index (n) and extinction coefficient (k) were found to be in the range of 2.1 to 1.1 and 0.6 to 0.01, respectively. The various scattering mechanisms such as lattice, ionized impurity, neutral impurity, grain boundary and alloy scattering due to variation of theoretical mobilities with temperature are discussed, in order to compare experimental results. In the lattice scattering mechanism, the quantum size effect phenomena were employed to estimate the energy dilation (E I ). The a-type films exhibited SnO 2 as secondary phase whereas b-type films showed single phase In 2 O 3 :Sn with high sheet resistance. The lattice constants were found to be 10.16 and 10.09 Å for a-and b-type films, respectively.

Modeling the structural properties and energies of transparent conducting oxides

“…The difference is probably because, for the Vegard's law calculation, we do not take into account the extra charge of Sn versus In. Comparing with the experimental findings of lattice constant 10.09 Å with 2.5 at.% simple Sn substitution [22], shows that there is a good agreement with our calculations of lattice constant 10.103 Å, 3.1 at.%. A decrease in lattice constant is also reported in the work of Frank and Kostlin [23] increasing Sn content for Sn content less than 2 at.%.…”

Transparent conductive Sn-doped indium oxide thin films deposited by spray pyrolysis technique

“…In order to obtain optimal characteristics of TCO films, the parameters such as substrate temperature [5], thickness [6], dopants [7], and other deposition conditions have to be optimized. TCO films have been prepared by various deposition techniques such as vacuum evaporation [8], dip coating [7], sputtering [9], spray pyrolysis [10], sol-gel [11], etc. In this paper, results are described by preparing coatings by spray pyrolysis while varying tin concentration.…”

Study of Nanomaterials Prepared by Combustion Method Using High Heat Combustion Chamber and Agreement with the Reported Results

“…Broad spectrum because of magnetic active substances contaminated when % of Indium increases electron density around decreases [13][14][15].…”