Structural, electrical, and optical properties of Ba1-xSmxSnO3 epitaxial thin films on MgO substrates by pulsed laser deposition

Ba1-xSm1-xSnO3 (BSSO, x - 0.00, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08, 0.10 and 0.15) thin films were epitaxially grown on (001) oriented MgO substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. The structure analysis was performed by x- ray diffraction (XRD), including 2theta- omega (2 theta- omega) scans, omega (omega) scans, phi (phi) scans, and reciprocal space mapping (RSM). Hall effect measurement shows that the lowest room temperature resistivity value can reach to 7.842 m Omega cm in the 0.04 Sm- doped thin film, while the carrier mobility (m) decreases systematically with increasing Sm doping content. Temperature dependent resistivity behavior indicates that the BSSO films exhibit metal- semiconductor transition in the temperature range of 10-300 K with the doping content up to x = 0.08. Optical transmission spectra measurement shows that all the BSSO films exhibit a high transmittance of more than 80% in the visible range. The increasing of optical band gap E-g with the increase of Sm doping content was interpreted by the Burstein- Moss effect and the occurrence of octahedral tilt distorting. Excellent optical and electrical properties mean that the BSSO films have potential applications as transparent and conducting oxide (TCO) material. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.