W doped SnO2 growth via sol–gel routes and characterization: Nanocubes

The effects of W doping on the characteristical properties of SnO2 thin films prepared by sol–gel spin coating method were investigated. The SnO2 thin films were deposited at various W doping ratios and characterized by various measurements. XRD studies indicated that the undoped and W doped SnO2 films had cubic and tetragonal phases. The SEM images of WTO thin films showed cubic shaped nanocubes corresponding to cubic phase and the smaller particles corresponding to tetragonal phase were formed on the film surfaces, and their distributions and sizes were dependent on the W doping ratio. EDX spectroscopy analyses showed that the calculated and participated atomic ratios of W/(W + Sn) (at.%) in the starting solution and in the WTO thin films were almost close. It was found that the sheet resistance depended on W doping ratio and 2.0 at.% W doped SnO2 (WTO) exhibited lowest value of sheet resistance (7.11 × 103 Ω/cm2).