Electrical and Optical Properties of Nb-doped SrSnO3 Epitaxial Films Deposited by Pulsed Laser Deposition

• Published in: Nanoscale research letters Vol. 15; no. 1; p. 164
• Main Authors: Li, Kaifeng, Gao, Qiang, Zhao, Li, Liu, Qinzhuang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 17-08-2020; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Carrier density; Cell size; Chemistry and Materials Science; Electrical resistivity; Electron mobility; Epitaxial; Epitaxial growth; Hall effect; High vacuum; Materials Science; Metal/semiconductor transitions; Molecular Medicine; Nano Express; Nanochemistry; Nanoscale Science and Technology; Nanotechnology; Nanotechnology and Microengineering; Niobium; Optical properties; Oxidation; Oxygen; Oxygen vacancies; Photoelectron spectroscopy; Photoelectrons; Pulsed laser deposition; Pulsed lasers; Room temperature; Single crystals; SrSnO3; Substrates; TCO; Temperature; Temperature dependence; Thin films; Two-Dimensional Materials: Science and Technology; Vacuum; Valence; X-ray diffraction; Thin films; TCO; Epitaxial; Oxygen vacancies; Pulsed laser deposition; SrSnO
• ISSN: 1556-276X; 1931-7573; 1556-276X
• DOI: 10.1186/s11671-020-03390-1

Nb-doped SrSnO
3
(SSNO) thin films were epitaxially grown on LaAlO
3
(001) single-crystal substrates using pulsed laser deposition under various oxygen pressures and substrate temperatures. The crystalline structure, electrical, and optical properties of the films were investigated in detail. X-ray diffraction results show that the cell volume of the films reduces gradually with increasing oxygen pressure while preserving the epitaxial characteristic. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis confirms the Nb
5+
oxidation state in the SSNO films. Hall-effect measurements were performed and the film prepared at 0.2 Pa with the 780 °C substrate temperature exhibits the lowest room-temperature resistivity of 31.3 mΩcm and Hall mobility of 3.31 cm
2
/Vs with a carrier concentration at 6.03 × 10
19
/cm
3
. Temperature-dependent resistivity of this sample displays metal-semiconductor transition and is explained mainly by electron-electron effects. Optical transparency of the films is more than 70% in the wavelength range from 600 to 1800 nm. The band gaps increase from 4.35 to 4.90 eV for the indirect gap and 4.82 to 5.29 eV for the direct by lowering oxygen pressure from 20 to 1 × 10
−3
 Pa, which can be interpreted by Burstein-Moss effect and oxygen vacancies generated in the high vacuum.