Nanocrystalline antimony doped tin oxide (ATO) thin films: A thermal restructuring study

Antimony doped tin oxide (ATO) is a transparent conducting oxide (TCO) with promising applications for solar energy utilization and for energy savings. In addition it has been shown how a thin ATO layer deposited on top of other TCOs could act as a protective coating against high temperature processes due to its good thermal stability. s been widely studied previously; however the role played by oxygen vacancies together with antimony doping, their structural arrangement and annealing restructuring processes remains unclear. present work ATO thin films are deposited by DC magnetron sputtering at room temperature from a metallic target onto soda-lime glass substrates. As deposited samples present amorphous or nanocrystalline structures, as well as different electrical and optical properties depending on their deposition parameters. Then, a post-deposition annealing is performed from 250 °C to 450 °C in air or nitrogen atmosphere in order to study not only the evolution of the electrical, optical and structural properties but also the conduction mechanism.