Characteristic Electronic Structure of SnO Film Showing High Hole Mobility

Actual knowledge of the intrinsic electronic characteristics of p-type oxide semiconductors should help guide the design of innovative electronic devices. The electronic characteristics of oxide semiconductors in thin-film form potentially differ from those in the bulk form owing to lattice strain. In this Letter, we report on the empirical band structure of stannous oxide (SnO) film, which has been shown to have a higher hole mobility than the theoretically expected values for SnO in the bulk form. In vacuo angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements reveal that the uppermost valence band is anisotropic between the out-of-plane and in-plane directions, and more dispersive than the theoretical predictions. Our findings unveil the underlying mechanism of the semiconductor properties of SnO films and suggest a suitable device structure based on the electronic characteristics.