posted on 2024-01-31, 20:46authored byPeter J. Callaghan, David Caffrey, Kuanysh Zhussupbekov, Samuel Berman, Ainur Zhussupbekova, Christopher M. Smith, Igor V. Shvets
Amorphous transparent
conducting oxides (a-TCOs) have seen substantial
interest in recent years due to the significant benefits that they
can bring to transparent electronic devices. One such material of
promise is amorphous ZnxSn1–xOy (a-ZTO). a-ZTO possesses
many attractive properties for a TCO such as high transparency in
the visible range, tunable charge carrier concentration, electron
mobility, and only being composed of common and abundant elements.
In this work, we employ a combination of UV–vis spectrophotometry,
X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and in situ scanning
tunneling spectroscopy to investigate a 0.33 eV blue shift in the
optical bandgap of a-ZTO, which we conclude to be due to quantum confinement
effects.