The effect of Mo and F double doping on structural, morphological, electrical and optical properties of spray deposited SnO2 thin films

The Mo/F double doped SnO2 films were successfully deposited via spray pyrolysis experimental technique. The effect of Mo/F co-doping on structural, morphological, electrical and optical properties of undoped SnO2 were investigated by means of XRD, SEM, four point probe and UV/VIS spectrophotometer measurements. The XRD measurements showed that films had a tetragonal cassiterite structure and the (211) preferential orientation of the undoped film changed to (301) and (200) orientations with high doping contents. Although the grain size values exhibited a decreasing tendency with increasing co-doping content, dislocation density and microstrain values of films usually had an increasing tendency. The SEM images indicated that the films were made up of well defined and homogenously dispersed pyramidal and polyhedron shaped nanoparticles. The electrical and optical studies showed the best electrical and optical properties were obtained for MFTO-2 sample. The best values of sheet resistance, optical band gap, figure of merit and IR reflectivity values were found to be 5.51 Omega/rectangle, 4.07 eV, 1.67 x 10(-2) (Omega/rectangle)(-1) and 97.13%, respectively. The observed results in the present study strongly suggest that the Mo/F double doped films are very appealing candidates for several technological applications. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.