Fabrication of ion conductive tin oxide-phosphate amorphous thin films by atomic layer deposition

This work reports the atomic layer deposition (ALD) of tin oxide-phosphate films using tetrakis(dimethylamino)tin and trimethyl phosphate as precursors. The growth rates were 1.23–1.84 Å/cycle depending upon the deposition temperature and precursor combination. The ionic conductivity of the ALD tin oxide-phosphate films was evaluated by cross-plane impedance measurements in the temperature range of 50–300 °C under atmospheric air, with the highest conductivity measured as 1.92 × 10⁻⁵ S cm⁻¹ at 300 °C. Furthermore, high-resolution x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy exhibited two O1s peaks that were classified as two subpeaks of hydroxyl ions and oxygen ions, revealing that the quantity of hydroxyl ions in the ALD tin oxide-phosphate films influences their ionic conductivity