SnO<sub>2</sub> Films Deposited by Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis: Influence of Al Incorporation on the Properties

oleh: Getnet Kacha Deyu, David Muñoz-Rojas, Laetitia Rapenne, Jean-Luc Deschanvres, Andreas Klein, Carmen Jiménez, Daniel Bellet

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2019-07-01

Deskripsi

Aluminum-doped tin oxide (SnO<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <msub> <mrow></mrow> <mn>2</mn> </msub> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula>:Al) thin films were produced by an ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method. The effect of aluminum doping on structural, optical, and electrical properties of tin oxide thin films synthesized at 420 <inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <msup> <mrow></mrow> <mo>&#176;</mo> </msup> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula>C was investigated. Al doping induced a change in the morphology of tin oxide films and yielded films with smaller grain size. SnO<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <msub> <mrow></mrow> <mn>2</mn> </msub> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula> thin films undergo a structural reordering and have a texture transition from (301) to (101), and then to (002) preferred cristallographic orientation upon Al doping. The lattice parameters (<i>a</i> and <i>c</i>) decreases with Al doping, following in a first approximation Vegard&#8217;s law. The optical transmission does not change in the visible region with an average transmittance value of 72&#8722;81%. Conversely, in the near infrared (NIR) region, the plasmon frequency shifts towards the IR region upon increasing Al concentration in the grown films. Nominally undoped SnO<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <msub> <mrow></mrow> <mn>2</mn> </msub> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula> have a conductivity of &#8764;1120 S/cm, which is at least two orders of magnitude larger than what is reported in literature. This higher conductivity is attributed to the Cl<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <msup> <mrow></mrow> <mo>&#8722;</mo> </msup> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula> ions in the SnCl<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <msub> <mrow></mrow> <mn>4</mn> </msub> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula>&#183;5(H<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <msub> <mrow></mrow> <mn>2</mn> </msub> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula>O) precursor, which would act as donor dopants. The introduction of Al into the SnO<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <msub> <mrow></mrow> <mn>2</mn> </msub> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula> lattice showed a decrease of the electrical conductivity of SnO<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <msub> <mrow></mrow> <mn>2</mn> </msub> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula> due to compensating hole generation. These findings will be useful for further studied tackling the tailoring of the properties of highly demanded fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) films.