Electrical properties and surface morphology of heteroepitaxial-grown tin-doped indium oxide thin films deposited by molecular-beam epitaxy

Heteroepitaxial growth of nondoped indium oxide (IO) and Sn-doped indium ox ide (ITO) thin films was carried out on optically polished single-crystalli ne yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) substrates by molecular-beam epitaxy. T he surface morphology of the epitaxial films was analyzed by field-emission -type scanning electron microscopy. The IO and ITO films showed quite diffe rent surface morphology, implying that the crystal-growth mechanisms were s trongly affected by the Sn doping. The surface migration of In on the (111) plane should be suppressed with increasing Sn concentration, resulting in the relatively large growth rate along the [111] direction. The epitaxial I O film deposited on YSZ(001) substrate showed very high mobility (mu = 86 c m(2)/V s) and low carrier density (n = 3.5x10(18) cm(-3)). Sn doping by 2.6 at.% increased the carrier density by 6.5x10(20) cm(-3), where doping effi ciencies were about 81%. (C) 2000 American Vacuum Society. [S0734-2101(00)0 9004-7].