The structural properties of SnO2:: Sb transparent conducting films deposited on flexible substrates

Antimony doped tin oxide (SnO2:Sb) films have been deposited on flexible substrates such as polyimide and polypropylene adipate. And the structural properties of the films have been investigated. The XRD measurements reveal that all of the obtained films were polycrystalline with the rutile structure. With increasing the substrate temperature and film thickness, the crystallinity of the resulting films is improved and the crystalline size becomes larger. The substrate temperature and film thickness dependence of crystallinity for the SnO2: Sb films were further revealed by their atomic force micrographs (AFM), which is consistent with the XRD observations. The XPS details of the SnO2: Sb films are also given. The tin core levels Sn 3d(5/2) and Sn 3d(3/2) are observed at 486.5 and 494.9 eV, respectively, while the 0 Is peak is obtained at 530.6 eV. It can be seen that the oxygen peak in the spectra is asymmetric, which is due to the concealed Sb 3d peak. The gap between the Sn 3d(5/2) and Sn 3d(3/2) levels (8.4 eV) is approximately the same as in the standard spectrum of Sn.