Distinctive Electric Properties of Group 14 Oxides: SiO₂, SiO, and SnO₂

The oxides of group 14 have been widely used in numerous applications in glass, ceramics, optics, pharmaceuticals, and food industries and semiconductors, photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, sensors, and energy storage, namely, batteries. Herein, we simulate and experimentally determine by scanning kelvin probe (SKP) the work functions of three oxides, SiO₂, SiO, and SnO₂, which were found to be very similar. Electrical properties such as electronic band structure, electron localization function, and carrier mobility were also simulated for the three crystalline oxides, amorphous SiO, and surfaces. The most exciting results were obtained for SiO and seem to show Poole-Frankel emissions or trap-assisted tunneling and propagation of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) with nucleation of solitons on the surface of the Aluminum. These phenomena and proposed models may also describe other oxide-metal heterojunctions and plasmonic and metamaterials devices. The SiO₂ was demonstrated to be a stable insulator interacting less with the metals composing the cell than SnO₂ and much less than SiO, configuring a typical Cu/SiO₂/Al cell potential well. Its surface charge carrier mobility is small, as expected for an insulator. The highest charge carrier mobility at the lowest conduction band energy is the SnO₂'s and the most symmetrical the SiO's with a similar number of electron holes at the conduction and valence bands, respectively. The SnO₂ shows it may perform as an n-type semiconductor.