Annealing temperature dependent oxygen vacancy behavior in SnO2 thin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition

► In this work, the annealing temperature dependent oxygen vacancy density variation was studied in the tin oxide (SnO2) thin films which were deposited on quartz substrate by pulsed laser deposition. ► Based on the results of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, an interesting annealing dependent oxygen behavior of these SnO2 thin films has been observed. ► To understand this annealing induced oxygen vacancy density variation, two distinguished processes, i.e. desorption of oxygen species and the annihilation of oxygen vacancy by oxidation, were proposed. ► The competition between these two processes is believed to be responsible for the density variation of the oxygen vacancy in the annealed SnO2 thin films.