Effects of annealing conditions on the properties of SnO films deposited by e-beam evaporation process

•A feasible and controllable method for the fabrication of p- and n-type SnO films is provided.•The p-type SnO films are obtained after annealing in vacuum.•The p-type SnO film with mobility of 3.28 cm2·V−1·s−1 and (0 0 1) preferential orientation is obtained.•The n-type SnO film is prepared after annealing in air.•Pure n-type SnO films with mobility of 6.63 cm2·V−1·s−1 is obtained after annealing at 300 °C. The SnO thin films have been deposited on quartz glass substrates using an e-beam evaporation system at room temperature and different post-deposition thermal treatments have been carried out. In case of annealing in air, n-type polycrystalline SnO films are obtained after annealing at 300 °C and 400 °C, respectively. For the 500 °C annealed film, SnO2 phase is generated due to the strong oxidation. However, when annealed in vacuum, pure p-type polycrystalline SnO films are produced. The feasible and controllable methods of p- and n-type SnO films contributes to the development of high performance devices.