Aluminium Doped Tin Oxide (ATO) Thin Films Grown onto Glass Substrate by Spray Pyrolysis Technique

Abstract

Nanostructured Al doped Tin Oxide (ATO) thin films were deposited on cleaned glass substrate by spray pyrolysis technique at 400 °C using a solution consisting of SnCl4 starting as material and doping source AlCl3 which were dissolved in methanol and stirred four hours. The effect of changes in doping source content of Al:SnO2 thin films were investigated and studied the crystalline structure, surface morphology, transmittance and optical band gap of ATO films. The dopant concentration varied from 0 to 10%. X ray diffraction studies conformed the proper phase formation in the films are polycrystalline without any second phase with preferential orientations along the (110), (200), and (211) planes and an average grain size of 20 nm. The visible transmittance exceeds 85% and the optical band gap was estimated to be around 2.6 eV to 3.6 eV. The scanning electron microscopic (SEM) studies showed the particle size lying in the range 20 nm for undoped films and it is decreasing while increasing of Al doping.