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High Transmission and Low Resistivity Cadmium Tin Oxide Thin Films Deposited by Sol-Gel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2014

Carolina. J. Diliegros Godines
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Unidad Querétaro, A. P. 1-798, Querétaro, Qro. 76001, México.
Rebeca Castanedo Pérez
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Unidad Querétaro, A. P. 1-798, Querétaro, Qro. 76001, México.
Gerardo Torres Delgado
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Unidad Querétaro, A. P. 1-798, Querétaro, Qro. 76001, México.
Orlando Zelaya Ángel
Affiliation:
Depto. de Física, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, A.P. 14-740, México 07360, México D.F., México.
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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.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2014 

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