Lanthanum-Doped Barium Stannate - a New Type of Critical Raw Materials-Free Transparent Conducting Oxide

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A pulsed laser deposition-based process for growth of highly-doped epitaxial La:BaSnO3(001) layers on (001)-oriented SrTiO3 is developed. The growth window of single-phase epitaxial Ba0.93La0.07SnO3 films is determined and the influence of growth parameters on crystalline quality is studied.Reciprocal space maps showed fully relaxed Ba0.93La0.07SnO3 epitaxial layers on SrTiO3 (001). The crystalline quality of material obtained was evidenced through HR-XRD measurements with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 290 arcsec for the Rocking curve of the symmetric (002) peak and 108 arcsec for the asymmetric (103) peak. The band gap of the layers, determined from Reflection measurements employing the Kubelka-Munk method, was estimated as 2.97 - 3.01 eV, i.e. very suitable for the applications envisaged. The layers demonstrated electrical conductivity value of 1024 (I©Â·cm)-1 at a free carrier concentration of 2.18A—1021 cm-3 and a high transparency (up to 90%) in the visible and NIR range of spectrum. The Ba0.93La0.07SnO3 layers grown could be regarded as a cost-effective and thermally and chemically stable alternative to highly doped ZnO-based transparent conductive oxides and to In2O3:Sn in applications ranging from solar energy utilization to optoelectronics as well as for the emerging field of transparent and radiation hard electronics.