A simple technique for the pyrosol process and deposition of tin oxide films

A very simple and low-cost device for the deposition of thin films by the pyrosol process has been designed Doped and undoped transparent conducting SnO₂ films have been prepared on glass substrates The films obtained were nonstoichiometric but homogeneous and polycrystalline in nature It is found that an activation energy of about 0 2 eV is associated with the film growth process The logarithm of the film thickness varies approximately linearly with the deposition time, and the sheet resistance shows a size effect below a thickness of about 0 3 micro m Doping increases the conductivity but at the cost of transparency The best compromise between transparency and conductivity was obtained at a substrate temperature of about 380°C and with 1 6 mole percent of Sb or 13 mole percent of F as dopants in the as-deposited condition The figure of ment of these films is compared to those of films obtained earlier by the spray pyrolysis method F doping produces better results than Sb doping.