Preparation and Characterization of Antimony Doped Tin Oxide Thin Films Synthesized by Co-Evaporation of Sn and Sb using Plasma Assisted Thermal Evaporation

Jariwala, C.; Dhivya, M.; Rane, R.; Chauhan, N.; Rayjada, P. A.; Raole, P. M.; John, P. I.

Tin oxide (SnO₂) thin films are having promising properties such as high visible transmittance and low electric resistivity, makes them very important transparent conductor in a variety of optoelectronics devices. Further, doping with pentavalent impurity such as Antimony (Sb) enhances its conductivity considerably. In order to study the effect of Antimony doping, Antimony doped tin oxide (SnO₂ : Sb) thin films have been prepared by the co-evaporation of Sn and Sb using Plasma Assisted Thermal Evaporation (PATE) in oxygen (O₂) partial pressure at various doping level from 4 to 25 %. The influence of various Sb doping levels on the compositional, electrical, optical and structural properties have been investigated using Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-VIS) transmission spectroscopy, fourprobe resistivity measurement and X-ray Diffraction (XRD), respectively. EDX studies confirmed the different Sb doping levels in the grown films from 4 to 25 %, while electrical resistivity is obtained in range of 0,36 to 9,5 Ohm x cm using four-probe setup for 4 to 25 % Sb doping levels. Transmittance spectra measured in UV-VIS range for Sb doped films show reduction in an average transmittance in respect to increase in Sb doping levels in the grown films. Whereas, XRD analysis reveals that higher Sb doping of 25 % induce the precipitation of antimony oxide (Sb₂O₃) phase and its precipitation suppressed the growth of SnO₂ peaks as well as responsible for reduction in conductivity and transparency. The best electrical resistivity of optimized SnO₂ : Sb (5 %) is 0,36 Ohm x cm without deteriorating the high (~ 80 %) average transmittance in the wavelength region 300 - 800 nm in comparison to undoped SnO₂ film (6,57 Ohm x cm) confirm the usefulness of Sn₂ : Sb (5 %) films for device.


	Наукова періодика України		Journal of Nano- and Electronic Physics