Optical and electronic properties in amorphous BaSnO₃ thin films

Wide-bandgap perovskite stannates are of interest for the emergent all-oxide transparent electronic devices due to their unparalleled room temperature electron mobility. Considering the advantage of amorphous material in integrating with non-semiconductor platforms, we herein reported the optical and electronic properties in the prototypical stannate, amorphous barium stannate (BaSnO₃) thin films, which were deposited at room temperature and annealed at various temperatures. Despite remaining amorphous status, with increasing the annealing temperature, the defect level within amorphous BaSnO₃ thin films could be suppressed. Accordingly, the optical band gap, the leakage current, and the breakdown electric field could be improved from 2.81 eV, 3.94 × 10⁻⁶ A cm⁻² at 400 kV/cm, 1.43 MV/cm for the as-prepared BaSnO₃ thin films to 2.90 eV, 6.17 × 10⁻⁸ A cm⁻² at 400 kV/cm, 1.93 MV/cm for the 400 °C-annealed BaSnO₃ thin films.