Electrical properties of Ta-doped SnO2 thin films prepared by the metal–organic chemical-vapor deposition method

Undoped and Ta-doped SnO2 (Sn12xTaxO2) thin films were prepared on Corning 7059 glass substrates by the metal–organic chemical-vapor deposition method. The relative amount of Ta, CTa5XTa /(XTa1XSn), varied from 0 to 7.13 at. %. For the five compositions studied, the lowest resistivity at room temperature was 2.01310 V cm at CTa53.75% with charge carrier density and mobility of 1.27310 cm and 24.5 cm/V s, respectively. In microstructural investigation, 3.75% Ta-doped film maintains a growth pattern of initial stage growth while 7.13% Ta-doped film has a high population of small grains at the interface, which results in large grains through competitive growth. The resistivity of the undoped film was 0.17 V cm with charge carrier density and mobility of 1.31310 cm and 28.1 cm/V s obtained from Hall measurement. This study suggests that Ta is an excellent n-type dopant in SnO2. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. @DOI: 10.1063/1.1337640#