Properties of (200) oriented, highly conductive SnO2 thin films by chemical spray pyrolysis from non-aqueous medium: Effect of antimony doping

Recently metal oxide thin films are extensively investigated because of their potential applications in solar energy conversion. In the present paper, Transparent conducting antimony doped tin oxide (Sb: SnO2) thin films have been deposited by spray pyrolysis technique at various antimony doping concentrations from non-aqueous solvent Propan-2-ol. XRD studies show that all films are polycrystalline with tetragonal crystal structure. The crystallite size observed is in the range 29-37 nm for various Sb doping concentrations. The surface morphology of Sb: SnO2 thin film is spherical with the continuous distribution of grains. The average transmittance of the undoped and Sb: SnO2 thin films, measured in the 450-850 nm wavelength is ranging between 70 and 95%. The best results are obtained at 1.5 wt.% Sb doping concentration, which are direct band gap of 3.82 eV, minimum sheet resistance of 5.7 Omega/cm(2), lowest resistivity of 3.76 x 10(-4) U-cm, carrier concentration and mobility of 4.46 x 10(19) cm(-3) and 372 cm(2) V-1 s(-1), respectively. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.