Transition in electron scattering mechanism in atomic layer deposited Nb:TiO2 thin films

Abstract

We characterized transport and optical properties of atomic layer deposited Nb:TiO2 thin films on glass substrates. These promising transparent conducting oxide (TCO) materials show minimum resistivity of 1.0 × 10−3 Ω cm at 300 K and high transmittance in the visible range. Low-temperature (2–300 K) Hall measurements and the Drude fitting of the Vis-NIR optical spectra indicate a transition in the scattering mechanism from grain boundary scattering to intra-grain scattering with increasing Nb content, thus underlining enhancement of the grain size in the low doping regime as the key for further improved TCO properties.