Effect of substrate temperature, laser energy and post-deposition annealing on the structural, morphological and optical properties of laser-ablated perovskite BaSnO3 films

Perovskite BaSnO3 thin films suitable for excitonic solar cell applications were deposited on quartz substrate by pulsed-laser ablation method. The effect of various deposition parameters on the structural, morphological and optical properties is systematically studied by various characterization techniques. Phase-pure films with cubic crystalline nature were evolved at a substrate temperature of 600 °C with a laser energy of 60 mJ and post-deposition annealing further improved the structural purity and optical quality of the films. An exponential growth in film thickness was observed with increasing laser energy in which Stranski–Krastnov growth mechanism dominated. Chemical states of BaSnO3 were confirmed from XPS analysis. The deposited films present luminescence in the visible region at 452 nm, 480 nm and 580 nm wavelength.