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Understanding nanomechanical and surface ellipsometry of optical F-doped SnO2 thin films by in-line APCVD

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Abstract

In this paper, a production-type chemical vapour deposition (CVD) is utilized to deposit fluorine doped tin oxide thin films of different thicknesses and dopant levels. Deposited films showed a preferred orientation along the (200) plane of a tetragonal structure due to the formation of halogen rich polar molecules during the process. A holistic approach studying elastic modulus and hardness of resulting films by a high-throughput atmospheric-pressure CVD process is described. The hardness values determined lie between 8 and 20 GPa. For a given load, the modulus generally increased slightly with the thickness. The average elastic recovery for the coatings was found to be between 45 and 50%. Refractive index and thickness values derived from the fitted ellipsometry data were in excellent agreement with independent calculations from transmission and reflection data.

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Acknowledgements

This work was part financed by EU Horizon 2020 grant H2020-LCE-2015-16-53296 CHEOPS Highly Efficient Photovoltaic Perovskite Solar Cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maths and Natural Sciences Division, Higher Colleges of Technology, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

    Mohammad Afzaal

  2. Materials and Physics Research Centre, University of Salford, Manchester, M5 4WT, UK

    Heather M. Yates

  3. Center of Research Excellence in Renewable Energy, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, 31261, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Amir Al-Ahmed

  4. Center for Engineering Research, Research Institute, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, 31261, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Anwar Ul-Hamid

  5. Center of Research Excellence in Desalination and Water Treatment, Research Institute, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, 31261, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Billel Salhi

  6. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Main Campus, 127788, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Murad Ali

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  1. Mohammad Afzaal
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  2. Heather M. Yates
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Correspondence to Mohammad Afzaal.

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Afzaal, M., Yates, H.M., Al-Ahmed, A. et al. Understanding nanomechanical and surface ellipsometry of optical F-doped SnO2 thin films by in-line APCVD. Appl. Phys. A 126, 840 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-020-04033-z

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