Ricardo Alberto Bustamante Santana, María de los Ángeles Hernández Pérez, Jorge Roberto Vargas García

Escuela Superior de Ingeniería Química e Industrias Extractivas, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico

Antimony doped tin oxide (ATO) thin films were prepared on silica glass by sol-gel/spin coating technique. Tetragonal crystalline structure was observed by XRD analysis for films with 0 – 15 % Sb dopant. Temperatures of 400ºC and higher promote better crystalline quality. Transmittance between 80-90 % was obtained for all films by UV-Vis analysis. The transmittance spectra were used to calculate the band-gap by Tauc method; the values ranged between 4.04 and 4.19 eV for films treated from 300 to 600°C. While the thermal treatment temperature increases alongside the increment of % Sb the band gap decreases to a minimum value of 4.02 eV for 10% Sb ATO thin films at 600ºC. In an EDS evaluation, it can be observed that the % Sb real increases with the temperature, existing a maximum dopant efficiency at 500°C.