Abstract
This paper studies the variations in morphology of SnO2 nanostructures thin films deposited by using e-beam technique with the substrate temperature, oxygen partial pressure and the film thickness. The e-beam conditions were optimized to get crystalline nanosheets of SnO2. The films of 100 similar to 700 nm thickness were deposited on quartz substrates at temperatures ranging from room temperature (RT) to 300 degrees C and oxygen partial pressure ranging from 0 to 200 SnO2. The nanostructured films have been characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) measurements. XRD results show that the films deposited at RT and 100 degrees C were amorphous, however, for 200 degrees C and 300 degrees C, the films showed crystalline nature with rutile structure. Also, the crystallinity increased with the increase of oxygen partial pressure. FE-SEM images revealed that at RT and 100 degrees C of substrate temperature, the film consist of spherical particles, whereas, the films deposited at 200 degrees C and 300 degrees C consist of sheet like morphology having thickness similar to 40 nm and lateral dimension of similar to 1 mu m, respectively. The size of the nanosheets increased with the increase of substrate temperature and oxygen partial pressure due to the enhancement in the crystallinity of the films. A possible growth mechanism of the formation of SnO2 nanosheets is discussed.