The structural, optical and morphological study of pulsed laser fabricated Sb doped tin oxide film

Antimony (Sb) doped tin oxide (SnO2) thin film (ATO) is considered as a salient transparent conducting material for optoelectronic and sensor applications due to its low electrical resistivity. In this study, SnO2: Sb thin film have been fabricated on glass substrates by ablating Sb doped SnO2 target using Nd-YAG laser operating at 1064 nm. The films were fabricated at optimized substrate temperature of 450 and 20 Pa partial O-2 pressure. The structural, morphological and optical characteristics of the films were studied. SEM micrographs revealed a hexagonal flake like surface of these doped films. The optical energy band gap is increased from 3.21 eV for pure SnO2 to 3.51 eV when doped with 2 wt% Sb. The optical transmittance of 2 wt% Sb doped SnO2 film is nearly 72 % and which was the best for the optimized doping concentration. Copyright (C) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.