Structural, electrical and optical properties of samarium fluoride doped SnO2 transparent conducting oxide thin films for optoelectronic device applications
225 viewsDOI:
https://doi.org/10.54939/1859-1043.j.mst.88.2023.123-130Keywords:
Samarium fluoride co-doped tin oxide films; Transparent conducting oxide (TCO); Sol–gel dip-coating; Electrical resistivity; p-type TCO.Abstract
In this study, p-type transparent tin oxide (SnO2) based semiconductor thin films were deposited onto glass substrates by sol-gel dip-coating method using samarium-trifluoride (SmF3) as acceptor dopant. The films were prepared by co-doping 2 mol.% of SmF3 into SnO2 (SFTO), followed by annealing temperature at 475 °C. XRD analysis results showed that the films exhibited the tetragonal rutile SnO2 phase. The p-type conductance of the SFTO films were confimed by Hall effect and Seebeck coefficient measurements. Resistivity and mobility of the SmF3 doped SnO2 film is 7.83 × 10–3Wcm and 7.57 cm2 V–1 s–1, respectively, which reduce in comparing with those of un-doped SnO2 film. Carrier concentration is large increase from –9.34 ´ 1018 cm–3 for un-doped- to +1.05 × 1020 cm–3 for SmF3 doped-SnO2 film. The p-type SFTO film showed a high transmittance of 74.3% at 550 nm, with band gap energy of 3.63 eV. Furthermore, a transparent p-SnO2:SmF3/n-ZnO:Al (Al doping level of 2 mol.%) heterojunction was fabricated on alkali-free glass substrates. The I-V curve measurement for the p-n heterojunction diode showed a typical rectifying characteristic with a forward turn-on voltage of 1.55 V. With obtained properties, the p-type SFTO film holds great promise for optoelectronic devices applications.
References
[1]. S. C. Dixon, D. O. Scanlon, C. J. Carmalt, and I. P. Parkin, "n-Type doped transparent conducting binary oxides: an overview," Journal of Materials Chemistry C, vol. 4, no. 29, pp. 6946-6961, (2016). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C6TC01881E
[2]. C. P. Liu et al., "Room-Temperature-Synthesized High-Mobility Transparent Amorphous CdO-Ga(2)O(3) Alloys with Widely Tunable Electronic Bands," ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, vol. 10, no. 8, pp. 7239-7247, (2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.7b18254
[3]. M. Ahmadi, M. Asemi, and M. Ghanaatshoar, "Mg and N co-doped CuCrO2: A record breaking p-type TCO," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 113, no. 24, (2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5051730
[4]. K. Jenifer, S. Arulkumar, S. Parthiban, and J. Y. Kwon, "A Review on the Recent Advancements in Tin Oxide-Based Thin-Film Transistors for Large-Area Electronics," Journal of Electronic Materials, vol. 49, no. 12, pp. 7098-7111, (2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-020-08531-x
[5]. K. Hui, K. S. Hui, L. Li, Y. Cho, and J. Singh, "Low resistivity p-type Zn1−xAlxO:Cu2O composite transparent conducting oxide thin film fabricated by sol–gel method," Materials Research Bulletin, vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 96–100, (2013). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.materresbull.2012.10.013
[6]. K. Ravichandran, K. Thirumurugan, N. Jabena Begum, and S. Snega, "Investigation of p-type SnO2:Zn films deposited using a simplified spray pyrolysis technique," Superlattices and Microstructures, vol. 60, pp. 327-335, (2013). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spmi.2013.05.006
[7]. P. Sakthivel, S. Asaithambi, M. Karuppaiah, S. Sheikfareed, R. Yuvakkumar, and G. Ravi, "Different rare earth (Sm, La, Nd) doped magnetron sputtered CdO thin films for optoelectronic applications," Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics, vol. 30, no. 10, pp. 9999-10012, (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-019-01342-9
[8]. N. B. A. Bouaine, G. Schmerber, C. Ulhaq-Bouillet, S. Colis, A. Dinia, , "Structural, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of Co-doped SnO2 Powders Synthesized by the Coprecipitation Technique", pp. 2924–2928, (2007). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/jp066897p
[9]. C. Li, W. Wei, T. Xia, H. Wang, Y. Zhu, and Y. Song, "La-doped SnO2 synthesis and its electrochemical property," Journal of Rare Earths, vol. 28, pp. 161-163, (2010). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1002-0721(10)60286-4
[10]. M. Arif, S. Monga, A. Sanger, P. M. Vilarinho, and A. Singh, "Investigation of structural, optical and vibrational properties of highly oriented ZnO thin film," Vacuum, vol. 155, pp. 662-666, (2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vacuum.2018.04.052
[11]. JCPDS Card No. 41–1445 for Tetragonal SnO2, (2007).
[12]. I. Y. Y. Bu, "Sol–gel deposition of fluorine-doped tin oxide glasses for dye sensitized solar cells," Ceramics International, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 417-422, (2014). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2013.06.017
[13]. N. B. Ibrahim, M. H. Abdi, M. H. Abdullah, and H. Baqiah, "Structural and optical characterisation of undoped and chromium doped tin oxide prepared by sol–gel method," Applied Surface Science, vol. 271, pp. 260-264, (2013). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2013.01.171
[14]. C. Benouis et al., "The low resistive and transparent Al-doped SnO2 films: p-type conductivity, nanostructures and photoluminescence," Journal of Alloys and Compounds, vol. 603, pp. 213–223, (2014). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2014.03.046
[15]. K. Ueda, S. Inoue, S. Hirose, H. Kawazoe, and H. Hosono, "Transparent p-type semiconductor: LaCuOS layered oxysulfide," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 77, no. 17, pp. 2701–2703, (2000). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1319507
[16]. J. Singh, R. Kumar, V. Verma, and R. Kumar, "Structural and optoelectronic properties of epitaxial Ni-substituted Cr2O3 thin films for p-type TCO applications," Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing, vol. 123, (2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mssp.2020.105483
[17]. Q.-P. Tran, J.-S. Fang, and T.-S. Chin, "Properties of fluorine-doped SnO2 thin films by a green sol–gel method," Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing, vol. 40, pp. 664–669, (2015). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mssp.2015.07.047
[18]. F. Arefi-Khonsari, N. Bauduin, F. Donsanti, and J. Amouroux, "Deposition of transparent conductive tin oxide thin films doped with fluorine by PACVD," Thin Solid Films, vol. 427, no. 1-2, pp. 208–214, (2003). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-6090(02)01211-7
[19]. S. F. Ahmed, S. Khan, P. K. Ghosh, M. K. Mitra, and K. K. Chattopadhyay, "Effect of Al doping on the conductivity type inversion and electro-optical properties of SnO2 thin films synthesized by sol-gel technique," Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 241-247, (2006). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-006-7808-x
[20]. E. S. T. G. J. Snyder, "Complex thermoelectric materials" in materials for sustainable energy: a collection of peer-reviewed research and review articles from Nature Publishing Group," World Scientific, pp. 101–110., (2011). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/9789814317665_0016
[21]. F. A. Kröger, "The Chemistry of Imperfect Crystals: Imperfection Chemistry of Crystalline Solids". North-Holland Publishing Company (etc.), (1974).
[22]. F. M. Hossain et al., "Modeling and simulation of polycrystalline ZnO thin-film transistors," Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 94, no. 12, (2003). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1628834
[23]. S. Yu, W. Zhang, L. Li, D. Xu, H. Dong, Y. Jin, "Fabrication of p-type SnO2 films via pulsed laser deposition method by using Sb as dopant," Applied Surface Science, vol. 286, pp. 417-420, (2013). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2013.09.107
