Preparation and Physical Properties of Nanocrystalline Tin Oxide Thin Films by Annealing of SnS Thin Films

Tin oxide is a wide band gap n-type semiconductor with a band width of 3.6 eV [1, 2]. SnO2 with its qualities of being quite stable towards atmospheric conditions, chemically inert, mechanicallyhard and a material that can resist high temperatures is becoming more popular among the available transparent conducting oxide thin films [3]. These properties of SnO2 have aroused great interest in the development of a short wavelength semiconducting laser. The conversion of SnS thin films to SnO2 thin films was observed in a study to assess the thermal stability of the SnS thin films [4]. In this work we prepared the Nanocrystalline tin oxide thin films by annealing of SnS thin films at 500 °C in air atmosphere. Structural, morphology and optical properties of the films were studied by XRD, SEM and UV-Vis spectrophotometery.