Morphological, structural, and optical properties of flexible Tin Oxide(II) thin film via thermal evaporation technique

Abstract

AbstractTin oxide compounds have been highly studied due to their important properties. Tin Oxide (II) SnO compound is considered an ideal p-type conductive material, with large p-type carrier mobility. It is getting a lot of attention in next-generation electronic applications. In this work, the SnO thin film was deposited on the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate by the thermal evaporation method. The X-ray diffraction pattern revealed the amorphous structure of the SnO/PET thin film. The purity of the SnO/PET film was confirmed using the Raman spectrum. An atomic force microscope was carried out to investigate the topography (roughness and particle size) of the obtained SnO thin film. The optical band gap $$E_{{\text{g}}}^{{{\text{Opt}}}}$$ E g Opt for SnO/PET thin film in the absorption region was estimated using Tauc’s equation. The refractive index for the SnO/PET thin film was estimated at the normal dispersion range by a single oscillator model. The dielectric optical properties of the SnO/PET thin film were estimated. The calculated third-order nonlinear susceptibility χ(3) and nonlinear refractive index n(2) were in the order of ~ 10−10 and ~ 10−9esu, respectively, within the photon energy range (0.5 to 4 eV). The Sheik–Bahae model was used to determine the nonlinear absorption coefficient βc for SnO/PET thin film. Based on these detailed results, the high nonlinear optical parameters pave the way for the probability of using the SnO/PET in flexible optoelectronics devices. Graphical abstract