Electrical and optical characterization of multilayered thin films based on pulsed laser deposition of metal oxides

Thin ®lms of semiconducting oxides such as In2O3, SnO2, and multilayers of these two compounds have been deposited by reactive pulsed laser ablation, with the aim to produce toxic gas sensors. Deposition of these thin ®lms has been carried out by a frequency doubled Nd-YAG laser (l ˆ= 532 nm) on silicon (1 0 0) substrates. A comparison, among indium oxide, tin oxide, and multilayers of indium and tin oxides, has been performed. The in¯uence of physical parameters such as substrate temperature, laser ¯uence and oxygen pressure in the deposition chamber has been investigated. The deposited ®lms have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical and electric resistance measurements.