Abstract
Tin oxide is a well known nonstoichiometric material with dual valency. The invariance of stoichiometry is very intriguing. As of today no report is available for preparing perfect stoichiometric tin oxide. Here we report a novel method to prepare stoichiometric tin oxide by modifying the known plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique using SnCl4-xH(2)O as precursor and O-2 as reactant gas at various temperatures from 300 to 800 degrees C. Tetragonal rutile structure of SnO2 was found, grown along the [110] direction. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic measurement showed constant Sn/O ratio. Sn 3d and O 1s were found composed of only Sn4+ (487.2 eV) and O-Sn4+ (531.2 eV) with equal peak widths. Raman band intensity (similar to 633 cm(-1)) was found increasing with temperature, indicating the morphological changes. Sheet resistance of similar to 0.5 k Omega/square at 300 degrees C was measured that reduces to similar to 0.1 k Omega/square at 600 degrees C. It is found that film stoichiometry remains unaltered, while the structural morphology changes significantly.