SnO2 thin films grown by pulsed Nd:YAG laser deposition

SnO2 thin films have been deposited on glass substrates by pulsed Nd:YAG laser at different oxygen pressures, and the effects of oxygen pressure on the physical properties of SnO2 films have been investigated. The films were deposited at substrate temperature of 500°C in oxygen partial pressure between 5.0 and 125 mTorr. The thin films deposited between 5.0 to 50 mTorr showed evidence of diffraction peaks, but increasing the oxygen pressure up to 100 mTorr, three diffraction peaks (110), (101) and (211) were observed containing the SnO2 tetragonal structure. The electrical resistivity was very sensitive to the oxygen pressure. At 100 mTorr the films showed electrical resistivity of 4×10−2 Ω cm, free carrier density of 1.03×1019 cm−3, mobility of 10.26 cm2 V−1 s−1 with average visible transmittance of ∼87%, and optical band gap of 3.6 eV.