Abstract: Transparent conducting antimony doped tin oxide (Sb:SnO₂) thin films have been deposited onto preheated glass substrates using a spray pyrolysis technique by varying the quantity of spraying solution. The structural, morphological, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, optical, photoluminescence and electrical properties of these films have been studied. It is found that the films are polycrystalline in nature with a tetragonal crystal structure having orientation along the (211) and (112) planes. Polyhedrons like grains appear in the FE-SEM images. The average grain size increases with increasing spraying quantity. The compositional analysis and electronic behaviour of Sb:SnO₂ thin films were studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The binding energy of Sn3d_5/2 for all samples shows the Sn⁴ bonding state from SnO₂. An intensive violet luminescence peak near 395 nm is observed at room temperature due to oxygen vacancies or donor levels formed by Sb⁵ ions. The film deposited with 20 cc solution shows 70% transmittance at 550 nm leading to the highest figure of merit (2.11 × 10^-3 Ω^-1). The resistivity and carrier concentration vary over 1.22 × 10^-3 to 0.89 × 10^-3Ωcm and 5.19 × 10²⁰ to 8.52 × 10²⁰ cm^-3, respectively.

Key words: Semiconductors,  microstructure,  optical properties,  electrical properties