Preprint Article Version 2 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Structural Origin of Magnetotransport Properties in APCVD Deposited Single and Bi-Layer Tin Oxide Thin Films

Krunoslav Juraić
* ORCID logo ,
Matija Čulo
,
Željko Rapljenović
,
Jasper Rikkert Plaisier
ORCID logo ,
Zdravko Siketić
,
Luka Pavić
,
Mario Bohač
,
Aden Hodzic
,
Davor Gracin
Version 1 : Received: 7 October 2020 / Approved: 8 October 2020 / Online: 8 October 2020 (20:53:21 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 4 June 2021 / Approved: 8 June 2021 / Online: 8 June 2021 (13:55:21 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Juraić, K.; Gracin, D.; Čulo, M.; Rapljenović, Ž.; Plaisier, J.R.; Hodzic, A.; Siketić, Z.; Pavić, L.; Bohač, M. Origin of Mangetotransport Properties in APCVD Deposited Tin Oxide Thin Films. Materials 2020, 13, 5182. Juraić, K.; Gracin, D.; Čulo, M.; Rapljenović, Ž.; Plaisier, J.R.; Hodzic, A.; Siketić, Z.; Pavić, L.; Bohač, M. Origin of Mangetotransport Properties in APCVD Deposited Tin Oxide Thin Films. Materials 2020, 13, 5182.

Abstract

Transparent conducting oxides (TCO) with high electrical conductivity and at the same time high transparency in the visible spectrum are an important class of materials widely used in many devices requiring a transparent contact such as light-emitting diodes, solar cells and display screens. Since the improvement of electrical conductivity usually leads to degradation of optical transparency, a fine-tuning sample preparation process and a better understanding of the correlation between structural and transport properties is necessary for optimizing the properties of TCO for use in such devices. Here we report a structural and magnetotransport study of tin oxide (SnO2), a well-known and commonly used TCO, prepared by a simple and relatively cheap Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapour Deposition (APCVD) method in the form of thin films deposited on soda-lime glass substrates. The thin films were deposited at two different temperatures (which were previously found to be close to optimum for our setup), 590 °C and 610 °C, and with (doped) or without (undoped) the addition of fluorine dopants. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Grazing Incidence X-ray Diffraction (GIXRD) revealed the presence of inhomogeneity in the samples, on a bigger scale in form of grains (80–200 nm), and on a smaller scale in form of crystallites (10–25 nm). Charge carrier density and mobility extracted from DC resistivity and Hall effect measurements were in the ranges 1–3 × 1020 cm−3 and 10–20 cm2/Vs, which are typical values for SnO2 films, and show a negligible temperature dependence from room temperature down to -269 °C. Such behaviour is ascribed to grain boundary scattering, with the interior of the grains degenerately doped (i.e., the Fermi level is situated well above the conduction band minimum) and with negligible electrostatic barriers at the grain boundaries (due to high dopant concentration). The observed difference for factor 2 in mobility among the thin-film SnO2 samples most likely arises due to the difference in the preferred orientation of crystallites (texture coefficient).

Keywords

tin oxide; thin films; atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition transport properties; magnetoresistance; impedance spectroscopy; charge carrier mobility

Subject

Chemistry and Materials Science, Surfaces, Coatings and Films

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Comments (1)

Comment 1
Received: 8 June 2021
Commenter: Krunoslav Juraić
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: Author
Comment: Results discussion was done in more details. Abstract and Conclusions are modified accordingly.
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