Theoretical and experimental studies on the electronic structure of crystalline and amorphous ZnSnO3 thin films

The influence of structural disorder on the electronic structure of amorphous ZnSnO3 was examined by ab-initio calculations. The calculation results are compared with the experimental results using as-deposited and annealed ZnSnO3 films grown by atomic layer deposition. The O K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and thin-film transistors were employed in the experiment. The conduction band minima of amorphous and crystalline ZnSnO3 mainly consisted of Sn 5s state, while a higher non-uniform localization of these states was observed in the amorphous phase compared with the crystalline counterpart. The experimental results coincide well with the theoretical results.