Structural, optical and ellipsometric characteristics of PVD synthesized SnO2 thin films on Pt coated silicon wafers

Tin oxide thin films were prepared on Pt coated-Si wafers by physical vapor deposition technique. The development of rutile structure of SnO2 was revealed by XRD measurements after annealing the thin films at 750 °C for two hours. The formation of tetrahedral shape particles at different size distributed randomly on the Pt coated Si wafer was confirmed by SEM images. The refractive index, extinction coefficient, thickness, and roughness of the thin films were evaluated using ellipsometric measurements. The energy bandgap of the SnO2 thin films was calculated from the spectrophotometric measurement and is found to be 3.6 ± 0.02 eV before and 3.8 ± 0.02 eV after annealing, respectively.