Molecular beam epitaxial growth of tin oxide semiconductors

In an effort to develop a method to utilize SnO in transparent electronic and optoelectronic applications, the molecular beam epitaxy method was used to grow a thin film SnO sample. Five samples were grown and studied using various conventional techniques. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy was used to identify the composition of the samples. The quality and thickness of the samples was studied using Scanning Electron Microscopy. This data was used to determine which samples were successful growths of SnO and how the growth conditions of each may have affected the outcomes. From the compiled data, single phase SnO was identified and selected for further study of it electrical properties. Previous studies have not been able to accurately identify the band gap energy of SnO due to its instability as an oxide. A bandgap energy of 2.56 eV was determined by photoluminescence analysis. This is consistent with reported estimates of between 2.5 to 3 eV for SnO..