Structural and electronic properties of SnO2

Highly transparent polycrystalline thin film of SnO2 (tin dioxide) was deposited using a simple and low cost spray pyrolysis method. The film was prepared from an aqueous solution of tin tetrachloride (stannic chloride) onto glass substrates at 400 °C. A range of diagnostic techniques including X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–visible absorption, atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and synchrotron-based X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to investigate structural, optical, and electronic properties of the resulting film. Deposited film was found to be polycrystalline. A mixture of SnO and SnO2 phases was observed. The average crystallite size of ∼21.3 nm for SnO2 was calculated by Rietveld method using XRD data. The oxidation states of the SnO2 thin film were confirmed by the shape analysis of corresponding XPS O 1s, Sn 3d, and Sn 4d peaks using the decomposition procedure. The analysis of the XPS core level peaks showed that the chemical component is non-stoichiometric and the ratio of oxygen to tin (O/Sn) is 1.85 which is slightly under stoichiometry.