Abstract
Transparent conducting cadmium tin oxide (CTO) thin films were obtained from a mixture of CdO and SnO2 precursor solutions by the dip-coating sol-gel technique. The thin films studied in this work were made with 7 coats (∼200 nm) on corning glass and quartz substrates. Each coating was deposited at a withdrawal speed of 2 cm/min, dried at 100°C for 1 hour and then sintered at 550°C for 1 hour in air. In order to decrease the resistivity values of the films, these were annealed in a vacuum atmosphere and another set of films were annealed in an Ar/CdS atmosphere. The annealing temperatures (Ta) were 450°C, 500°C and 550°C, as well as 600°C and 650°C, when corning glass and quartz substrates were used, respectively. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the films annealed in a vacuum showed that there is only the presence of CTO crystals for 450°C≤ Ta ≤ 600°C and CTO+SnO2 crystals for Ta=650°C. The films annealed in Ar/CdS atmosphere were only constituted of CTO crystals independent of the Ta. The minimum resistivity value obtained was ∼4 x 10-4 Ωcm (Rsheet= 20 Ω/□) for the films deposited on quartz and annealed at Ta=600°C under an Ar/CdS atmosphere. The films deposited on quartz showed the higher optical transmission (∼90%) with respect to the films deposited on corning glass substrates (∼85%) in the Uv-vis region. For their optical and electrical characteristics, these films are good candidates as transparent electrodes in solar cells.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Secretaria de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación del Distrito Federal (SECITI) under project # 258/2012 and the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) under Project FOMIX-Qro # 199228. The authors also thank CONACyT and CONCYTEQ for the fellowship awarded to M. Sci. Carolina Janani Diliegros Godines. The authors wish to thank M. Sci. Joaquín Márquez Marín, M. Sci. Cynthia I. Zúñiga Romero for their technical assistance.
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Diliegros, C.J., Castanedo, R., Torres, G. et al. High Transmission and Low Resistivity Cadmium Tin Oxide Thin Films Deposited by Sol-Gel. MRS Online Proceedings Library 1675, 151–156 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1557/opl.2014.878
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/opl.2014.878