Comparison between microwaves-assisted and non-microwaves hot substrates on SnO2:F thin film prepared by spray pyrolysis method

Abstract Thin SnO 2 :F films were prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis technique using two different sources for heating the substrates. The first method is using only hotplate whereas another method is a combination between hotplate and microwaves system. The spraying time was varied from 2, 4, 6, and 8 minutes with flow rate of 4 litre/min, by fixing the substrate temperature at around 300 °C. Physical properties of the obtained thin films were characterized using x-rays diffraction (XRD) technique, UV-visible spectrophotometer, and the standard four-point probe technique. Distinct Bragg peaks at (110), (101), (200), (211) and (310) were found from the substrates that were heated using only hotplate at the spraying time of 6 and 8 minutes. However, there are no observable Bragg peaks found from those prepared using the microwaves-assisted technique. The highest light transmission of 92.97% and 96.17% were found from the films with spraying time of 6 minutes without microwave and 6 minutes with microwave, respectively. The energy gap of 3.60 eV and 3.64 eV were found from the films with spraying time of 8 minutes form with and without microwave, respectively. Finally, the lowest resistivity of 0.10 Ω·cm and 5.03 Ω·cm were found from the films without microwaves and with microwaves, respectively using the same spraying time of 6 minutes.