Physical properties of highly oriented spray-deposited fluorine-doped tin dioxide films as transparent conductor

Heavily fluorine-doped tin dioxide films were deposited by spray pyrolysis using a high precursor concentration. The effect of film thickness was studied in the range 80–1230 nm. The films were polycrystalline and preferentially oriented along [2 0 0]. The grain size, carrier mobility μ, carrier concentration N and resistivity reached ∼230 nm, 35 cm2/V s, 6×1020 cm−3 and 3×10−4 Ω cm, respectively, for 1000 nm films. An unusual ‘direct and linear’ μ–N dependence revealed the importance of the structural properties. The 1000 nm thick films possessed an average visible transmittance ∼81% and a reflectance ∼66% at 2500 nm. The electro-optical properties revealed their excellent quality as a TCO material.