Structures, optical properties, and electrical transport processes of SnO$_2$ films with oxygen deficiencies

TL;DR

This study systematically investigates how oxygen partial pressure during fabrication affects the structure, optical transparency, and electrical conduction mechanisms of SnO$_2$ films, revealing tunable surface textures and complex charge transport behaviors.

Contribution

It demonstrates the relationship between oxygen partial pressure and film orientation, optical properties, and detailed charge transport mechanisms, including various hopping processes and temperature-dependent crossovers.

Findings

Higher oxygen partial pressure increases optical band gap and transmittance.

Charge transport involves multiple hopping processes with temperature-dependent crossovers.

Preferred growth orientation is strongly related to oxygen partial pressure.

Abstract

The structures, optical and electrical transport properties of SnO$_2$ films, fabricated by rf sputtering method at different oxygen partial pressures, were systematically investigated. It has been found that preferred growth orientation of SnO$_2$ film is strongly related to the oxygen partial pressure during deposition, which provides an effective way to tune the surface texture of SnO$_2$ film. All films reveal relatively high transparency in the visible range, and both the transmittance and optical band gap increase with increasing oxygen partial pressure. The temperature dependence of resisitivities was measured from 380 K down to liquid helium temperatures. At temperature above $\sim 80$ K, besides the nearest-neighbor-hopping process, thermal activation processes related to two donor levels ($\sim 30$ and $\sim 100$ meV below the conduction band minimum) of oxygen vacancies are responsible for the charge transport properties. Below $\sim 80$ K, Mott variable-range-hopping conduction process governs the charge transport properties at higher temperatures, while Efros-Shklovskii variable-range-hopping conduction process dominates the transport properties at lower temperatures. Distinct crossover from Mott type to Efros-Shklovskii type variable-range-hopping conduction process at several to a few tens kelvin are observed for all SnO$_2$ films.