This paper describes the effects of annealing on electric properties and structure of amorphous indium-tin oxide (ITO) films deposited by sputtering at room temperature and with H2O addition. The film resistivity was increased by annealing at 150–200° C; in this temperature range the growth of ITO crystallites dispersed in the amorphous ITO phase was observed. This increased resistivity was found to be due to decreases in both Hall mobility (µ H) and carrier density (n) of the films. Measurements of thermal desorption spectroscopy revealed that two different adsorption states, in terms of H2O molecules which are due to the hydrogen-bonded H2O and OH species, were formed in amorphous ITO films during film deposition and the subsequent annealing process. Factors in the decreases of µ H and n were discussed on the basis of the experimental results obtained.
Hydrogenated amorphous indium–tin–oxide (ITO) films were prepared by a sputtering method at room temperature with H2O addition. The initial stage of thermal crystallization of the amorphous films was investigated after annealing at 150 °C, just below the crystallization temperature. With increasing H2O addition, the growth of crystallites dispersed in the amorphous matrix was suppressed, while the nucleation of crystallites was sharply enhanced. The amount of bonded hydrogen increased and that of oxygen vacancies decreased at the same time, with introducing inhomogeneites in the amorphous matrix. The effect of these microstructural changes on the nucleation and growth process of crystallites embedded in the amorphous solids was discussed based on these experimental results taking into account a recently proposed theoretical prediction to describe the crystallization of disordered solids.
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