Field Effect Transistors based in a Sn3O4 nanobelt

In this work, high quality single crystalline Sn3O4 nanobelts grown by the vapor-solid (VS) method associated to a carbothermal reduction process were studied. Field Effect Gun Scanning Electronic Microscopy confirmed the growth of belt-like nanostructures by the VS method. X-Ray Diffraction revealed that the synthesis resulted in monocrystalline belts of high crystalline quality and preferential growth orientation. Semiconductor character of samples was detected by temperature-dependent resistivity measurements and the variable range hopping (VRH) was found to be the main mechanism of electronic transport in a large range of temperatures. A Field Effect Transistor (FET) based in a single nanobelt of Sn3O4 was built in order to obtain key parameters of the nanobelt since it is the active channel in the device. The transistor was characterized by current-voltage curves from which we found the Sn3O4 channel to be n-type. The density of free carriers was found to be 5,07x1017 cm-3and mobility was found to be 11,5 cm2/V.s. The field effect properties of the Sn3O4 nanobelts were also studied under UV illumination. The results indicate that the conductance is an order of magnitude greater in this condition than in dark and this photoconductive behavior was associated to the presence of oxygen vacancies in Sn3O4 structure releasing free carriers to the channel.