La doped SrTiO3 thin films on SrLaAlO4 (001) as transparent conductor

Abstract

Transparent conductors are essential for many optoelectronic applications, and economically viable replacement for the industry standard transparent conductor, indium tin oxide, is in dire need. Electronic structure calculations are performed to confirm that La doping in a band insulator SrTiO3 provides carriers in the conduction band without generating in-gap states and thus La doped SrTiO3 would retain good optical transparency. To realize the computational results, we synthesize La doped SrTiO3 in thin film form and characterize the films. It is demonstrated that 10% La doped SrTiO3 thin films on SrLaAlO4 (001) substrates are indeed transparent conductors with sheet resistance R-S similar to 60 Omega/square and 80% transmission in the visible wavelength range at room temperature. (C) 2013 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.