Deposition of tin oxide thin film by sol-gel dip coating technique and its characterization

Abstract

Tin oxide (Sn3O4) thin films were deposited on glass substrate using inorganic precursor by sol gel dip coating technique. The structural studies of the films were obtained by X-ray diffraction technique and the data showed that the synthesized tin oxide films have triclinic structure with preferred orientation along (-2, 1, 0) and (-4, 2,0) plane. Optical studies revealed that the film having more thickness shows better transmission about 92% in the visible region and optical band gap energy increases to 2.93eV due to Moss-Burstein effect. The presence of tin and oxygen in the samples were confirmed with characteristic vibrational mode of Sn-O in the region 430-482 cm-1 and 669-674 cm-1 using FTIR spectroscopy. Photoluminescence spectra shows the presence of emission in the visible region depends on thickness of the film. This study suggests that the sol-gel dip coating method is the best method for fabricating highly pure, transparent and homogenous mixed valence phase of tin oxide thin film and further studies may be required to tailor electrical and optical properties of the films suitable for various optoelectronic applications.