Deposition of tin oxide films by pulsed laser evaporation

Abstract

Thin films of SnO2−x (0<x<1) were deposited on Corning glass and alumina substrates by employing a pulsed laser evaporation (PLE) technique. The microstructural features of the films were probed with Sn119 conversion electron Mössbaucr spectroscopy (CEMS) whereas the structural characteristics were identified by using low-angle x-ray diffraction measurements. The electrical and optical properties have also been studied. It is shown that films with conductivity of 3 × 102 (ohm·cm)−1 and transmission of 90% can be obtained by appropriate postannealing of the as-deposited films in air and vacuum. The energy gap of this nearly stoichiometric single-phase SnO2 film was found to be 3.5 eV and spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements indicated the refractive index lobe typically between 1.8–1.9 over the wavelength range of 400–800 nm.