Investigation on defects of Sb doped SnO₂ thin films by positron annihilation

Abstract

Undoped and Sb doped tin oxide thin films were fabricated by the dip-coating technique through a propylene oxide assisted sol–gel method. Atomic force microscope measurements reveal that the grain size increased after being calcined at higher temperature; while increasing the dopant content leads to a reduction in grain size and a corresponding increase in the concentration of grain boundaries. Positron annihilation spectroscopy analysis shows the defects are reduced with increasing Sb content to 5%; however, further increasing the doping level to 10% introduces more defects to the films. At all doping levels, the defects in Sb doped tin oxide films decreases significantly upon elevating the calcination temperature.