I am depositing SnO2 thin film using spray pyrolysis in ITO glass. The resistance of ITO is about 15 ohm. When I deposit the film, the resistance between the upper surface and film and the lower level as the ITO sheet gives minimum change in resistance (about 8 ohm) and so it seems like it has shorted. Probably the film is very thin or the film altogether has not deposited. So how do I determine whether the film is deposited or not and if so what should be the difference in resistance?
Thank you
Simply, check the transmittance before and after deposition - It'll provide you some basic information about nature of your film
http://www.scielo.br/pdf/bjp/v36n3b/a64v363b.pdf
you may do EDX or EDS under the SEM before and after, that should be able to detect the deposited film elements.
Hi! I found all previous suggestions good! I`d rather will make a simple test for wettability! Just check the contact surface angle of ITO and then make your spray pirolysis and check it again! All measurements should involve about 5 tests (drops) and evaluate the mean. You will then see the difference! Good Luck!
You can verify/quantify your deposit by ICP analysis of the dissolved SnO2 coating.
change in any physical property speaks itself which is a proof of deposition ....by the way small or large change means the same and which is ........change......which itself is a language of materials properties which indicates that something different happened.
In addition to all above: XPS analysis is very sensitive just in this scale. Penetration depth about 2 nm depending on the element. It should be easy to see Sn and O, and also the various components (ex. OH, O, H2O)...
Good luck!
You may do WDXRF or EDX, that should be able to detect the deposited film elements.
In addition to all above: spectroscopic ellipsometry is very sensitive tu measure thin thicness in order to detect the deposited SnO2 films
the simplest method is to measure transmittance and reflectance, measure the T/R for bare substrate and then after deposition, this will confirm that you have the thin film,it is also possible to get lower sheet resistance, recall even the commercial TCOs you are using are in the ranges 8 Ohm, 10 Ohm or 15 Ohm square
Ellipsometry did not work for the FTO layers that we had because of the high roughness. It may show you whether or not something has changed, but I think it will be quite hard to say anything more if indeed something has changed.
Dear Sandip Choudhury
1) You can do XRD and in case your SnO films are crystalline you can see XRD peaks corresponding to SnO2, besides the peaks due to ITO. Well this analysis depends on how well separated are the peaks of SnO2 and ITO phases, and the resolution of the measurements.
2) Try out optical transmssion measurements, and determine the optical refractive index.
K. Sreenivas
XRR, X-ray reflectivity (XRD method), should be the unequivocal NDE real time in situ tool recommended for this purpose of film thickness measurements. Using any other method including SEM or TEM would require destroying the sample first through "sample prep". That would include XPS, wouldn't it? I'm not sure about the sample prep needed for AFM? XRR is independent of the visible & IR optical characteristics of the film. Using software such as LEPTOS and a HRXRD system one can detect even changes in the "rms" (substrate flatness) due to minuscule amounts of film deposition in crevices perhaps (?). See following RG discussion using XRR & the NIST 2000 SRM (Standard Reference Material) for a lot more information for evaluating film thickness and surface "flatness" (rms).
My profile photo is the XRR rocking curve signal from the NIST2000SRM:
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_the_best_way_to_interpret_REAL_TIME_3D_X_Y_Omega_2Theta_reciprocal_space_relative_intensity_data_from_HRXRD_rocking_curve_analyses
I guess that you're an student working on his thesis. If you don't provide to us more information about what are you doing, BEFORE, and AFTER the deposition of SnO2 films, you can get here a lot of many different replies. And probably any of them won't give you the correct response. Also, is possible that it won't be any CORRECT answer to your particular case. To say that "I am depositing SnO2 thin film using spray pyrolysis in ITO glass" didn't say us anything about WHAT ARE YOU DOING, step by step (in the same manner you will need to do when writing your final document (Thesis). Then, please put in practice your writing skills and DESCRIBE the whole process you use to "DEPOSIT" your SnO2 films (since the preparation of the material you're using as substrate, up to the final step when finishing your deposition). It's unnecessary that you describe any characterization process, because YOUR QUESTION regards exactly this point.
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