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Electron transport in semiconducting SnO2: Intentional bulk donors and acceptors, the interface, and the surface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2012

Oliver Bierwagen ,
Takahiro Nagata ,
Mark E. White ,
Min-Ying Tsai  and
James S. Speck
Oliver Bierwagen*
Affiliation:
Paul-Drude-Institut für Festkörperelektronik, D-10117 Berlin, Germany; and Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106
Takahiro Nagata
Affiliation:
National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan; and Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106
Mark E. White
Affiliation:
Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106
Min-Ying Tsai
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106
James S. Speck
Affiliation:
Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: bierwagen@pdi-berlin.de
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Abstract

The transport properties of doped and undoped, high quality, plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy grown tin dioxide (SnO2) thin films are reviewed. Intentional doping can vary the SnO2 resistivity over more than seven orders of magnitude from a transparent conducting oxide-like conductivity up to the semi-insulating range. A region of high unintentional n-type conductivity was identified in the substrate interface region and had to be accounted for. Sb was a well-behaved shallow donor up to the regime of conducting oxides. In and Ga were too deep acceptors to achieve p-type conductivity but were suitable to render SnO2 semi-insulating. While the surface accumulation layer strongly influenced contact properties, its conductance was negligible. The methodology used here for studying the transport can also be applied to other semiconducting oxides.

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Articles
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Journal of Materials Research , Volume 27 , Issue 17: Focus Issue: Oxide Semiconductors , 14 September 2012 , pp. 2232 - 2236
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2012

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References

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