Effects of Operation Parameters on Structures and Surface Morphology of Tin Dioxide Nanostructures Prepared by DC Reactive Sputtering

Abstract

In this work, tin dioxide thin films were prepared by dc reactive sputtering technique. These film were deposited on glass substrates and their structural characteristics were determined by the x-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It is found that the XRD peaks becomes gradually sharper with increasing discharge current that indicates smaller particle size. The AFM results showed that the prepared films have granular structure and high surface area, which is very useful for gas sensing devices based on nanostructured SnO2 thin films. As the partial amount of oxygen in the argon:oxygen mixture is increased, the surface mobility and the energy of the SnO2 molecules increase leading to higher mean free path of the SnO2 molecules and hence more massive grain sizes.