Structural and optical properties of La-doped BaSnO3 thin films grown by PLD

In this study the structural and optical properties of lanthanum-doped BaSnO3 powder samples and thin films deposited on fused silica were investigaed using laser ablation. Under an oxygen pressure of 5×10−4 mbar, phase pure BaSnO3 films with a lattice constant of 0.417 nm and grain size of 21 nm were prepared at 630 °C. The band gap of BaSnO3 powder sample and thin films was calculated to be 3.36 eV and 3.67 eV, respectively. There was a progressive increase in conductivity for thin films of BaSnO3 doped with 0~7 at% of La. The highest conductivity, 9 Scm−1, was obtained for 7 at% La-doped BaSnO3. Carrier concentration, obtained from Burstein-Moss (B-M) shift, nearly matches the measured values except for 3 at% and 10 at% La-doped BaSnO3 thin films.