Structure, optical, and electrical properties of indium tin oxide thin films prepared by sputtering at room temperature and annealed in air or nitrogen.

Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films have been grown onto soda-lime glass substrates by sputtering at room temperature with various oxygen to argon partial pressure ratios. After deposition, the samples have been annealed at temperatures ranging from 100 to 500 °C in nitrogen or in air. The structure, optical, and electrical characteristics of the ITO coatings have been analyzed as a function of the deposition and the annealing parameters by x-ray diffraction, spectrophotometry, and Hall effect measurements. It has been found that the as-grown amorphous layers crystallize in the cubic structure by heating above 200 °C. Simultaneously, the visible optical transmittance increases and the electrical resistance decreases, in proportions that depend mainly on the sputtering conditions. The lowest resistivity values have been obtained by annealing at 400 °C in nitrogen, where the highest carrier concentrations are achieved, related to oxygen vacancy creation. Some relationships between the analyzed properties have been established, showing the dependence of the cubic lattice distortion and the infrared optical characteristics on the carrier concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]