Synthesis and magnetic properties of Mg doped SnO2 thin films: experimental and Ab-initio study

Abstract

Mg-doped tin oxide (SnO2) thin films were deposited using spray pyrolysis technique with an aqueous solution of SnCl2 and magnesium sulfate (Mg (SO4)·7H2O) on a heated glass substrate. In this work, the effect of Mg doping on the structural, optical and electrical properties of SnO2 was investigated in some detail by X-ray diffraction, UV–Vis spectroscopy and Hall Effect measurements. The XRD diffractograms demonstrate that SnO2 crystallized in tetragonal rutile structure with preferential orientation along (110) plane. The average transmittance in the visible range was increased from 65 to 78% and the values of energy band gap were found in the range of 3.62–3.87 eV. The lowest resistivity [1.021 × 101 (Ω.cm)] was obtained for the film doped with 5 at% Mg. The electronic structure and optical properties of the rutile structure Sn1−xMgxO2 were obtained by ab initio calculations using the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method (KKR) combined with the Coherent Potential Approximation (CPA), as well as CPA confirms our results.