Influence of texture coefficient on the electrical properties of spray-deposited fluorine-doped tin oxide thin film

Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) thin films were deposited onto a glass substrate using the spray pyrolysis technique, and the substrate temperature was varied from 450 to 550 degrees C with steps of 25 degrees C. A considerable change was observed for the texture, which was found to be influential on the morphological and electrical characteristics of the FTO thin films. Although the FTO film deposited at 450 degrees C was highly textured along the (200) orientation, a considerable reduction was observed for TC(200) after 500 degrees C. On the contrary, the TC(301) and TC(200) started to grow by increasing the substrate temperature to the extent of being the completely dominant planes at 550 degrees C. As a result, the mobility of the films met a constant reduction from 24.20 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) for 450 degrees C to 11.40 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) for 550 degrees C. The carrier concentration reached its maximum at 500 degrees C (3.86 x 10(20) cm(-3)) and declined with a further increase of the deposition temperature. The best resistivity of 8.25 x 10(-4) omega cm corresponding to a 16 omega/sq sheet resistance and average transmittance of 85.32% was achieved at 500 degrees C. The aforementioned results led to a considerable figure of merit of 12.8 x 10(-3) omega(-1) which is indicative of a high-quality spray-deposited FTO thin film.

Automated summary

The deposition temperature significantly affects the texture, morphology, and electrical properties of fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) thin films. As the temperature increases, the resistivity of the films decreases gradually, while the carrier concentration reaches its peak at 500 degrees C and the electron mobility reaches its lowest value at 550 degrees C.