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.