Epitaxial growth of orthorhombic SnO2 films on various YSZ substrates by plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition

SnO2 thin films were deposited on (100), (110), and (111) yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) substrates using plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD), and their structural, electrical, and optical properties were investigated. X-ray diffraction, X-ray pole figure, and high resolution TEM analyses revealed that orthorhombic (100) and (110) SnO2 films were hetero-epitaxially grown on (100) and (110) YSZ, respectively. The determined in-plane orientation relationships were [010](C-SnO2) parallel to [010](YSZ) and [001](C-SnO2) parallel to [001](YSZ) ((100)YSZ) and [1 (1) over bar0](C-SnO2) parallel to [1 (1) over bar0](YSZ) and [00 (1) over bar](C-SnO2) parallel to [00 (1) over bar](YSZ) ((110)YSZ). However, polycrystalline rutile SnO2 films were deposited on the (111) YSZ substrate. All the SnO2 films exhibited a similar electrical resistivity of similar to 2 x 10(-2) Omega cm and the average transmittance of 78% in the visible range and thus the electrical and optical properties were not noticeably changed with film orientation and phase. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.