Structural refinement of SnO₂ thin film prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition

The structural refinement of SnO₂ thin film prepared by PECVD was performed by the Rietveld method using X-ray diffraction data. The agreement between calculated and observed patterns was not satisfactory, which was attributed to the preferred orientation effect. The effect of preferred orientation was corrected by three kinds of approaches: a March-Dollase function, a pole density distribution using an inverse pole figure and a generalized spherical harmonic function. Of these methods, the approach using the generalized spherical harmonic function was the most effective than the other two approaches. The final residual weighted R-factor, R_wp, was converged 7.92%. The lattice parameters were a = b = 4.7357(2) and c = 3.1937(2). Other structural parameters were well in accordance with those of SnO₂ powder.