Abstract
Nonstoichiometric SnO/SnO2/SnO2−δ films were fabricated by DC magnetron sputtering and reactive DC magnetron sputtering of tin target with further 2-stage temperature annealing of synthesized materials. X-ray diffraction analysis, Raman spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy were employed to study the influence of oxygen content in the plasma during the sputtering process and the temperature of annealing on the stoichiometric and phase composition of synthesized films. It was found that the tin monoxide phase prevailed in the films fabricated by DC magnetron sputtering in the argon plasma followed by a 2-stage annealing process. Nanocrystalline films containing both tin monoxide and tin dioxide were synthesized when reactive magnetron sputtering with a small content of oxygen (of about 1 vol.%) was used. The increase of oxygen content in the plasma to the value of about 2 vol.% leads to the formation of amorphous films. The intensity of the Raman peaks inherent in SnO2 vibration modes was found to depend on the content of the tin monoxide phase in the films. This effect can be attributed to the dissipative transition of electronic excitation from tin monoxide to tin dioxide nanocrystallites.
Highlights
The past several decades saw undiminished interest in studying properties of transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) because of a rare combination of electrical conductivity and optical transparency in these materials [1, 2]
We proposed earlier the method of fabrication of tin oxide films with a different phase and stoichiometric composition with a possibility to synthesize samples with various parameters [20]
In this paper we present a study of the influence of synthesis parameters on the phase and stoichiometric composition of tin oxide films by means of X-ray diffraction, electron paramagnetic resonance and Raman scattering
Summary
The past several decades saw undiminished interest in studying properties of transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) because of a rare combination of electrical conductivity and optical transparency in these materials [1, 2]. The most stable of the tin oxide phases, is a wide band gap semiconductor (Eg ~ 3.6 eV) and due to the intrinsic oxygen vacancies (OVs) has n-type conductivity [6]. The phase transition SnO → SnO2 with a possible formation of intermediate tin oxide phases usually occur during fabrication of tin dioxide of various architecture by means of different methods: electron beam evaporation [16], spray pyrolysis [16, 17], sol–gel synthesis [12, 18], physical vapour deposition [17] and magnetron sputtering [19] followed by thermal annealing etc. In this paper we present a study of the influence of synthesis parameters (oxygen content in argon– oxygen plasma during reactive magnetron sputtering and temperature of post-deposition annealing) on the phase and stoichiometric composition of tin oxide films by means of X-ray diffraction, electron paramagnetic resonance and Raman scattering
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