Optical and Electrical Properties of Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) Thin Films Prepared by Thermal Evaporation Method on Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Substrate

Ali, Majid Khan Majahar; Ibrahim, Kamarulzaman; Pakhuruddin, Mohd Zamir; Faraj, M. G.

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.545.393

Cited by 9 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Various deposition techniques have been used to obtain TCO thin films, such as: vacuum thermal evaporation [15–16], chemical vapor deposition [17], sol–gel [18], pyrolysis spray techniques [5,19], magnetron sputtering [20–22], and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) [23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid thermal annealing for high-quality ITO thin films deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering

Prepelita¹,

Stavarache²,

Crǎciun³

et al. 2019

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this work, rapid thermal annealing (RTA) was applied to indium tin oxide (ITO) films in ambient atmosphere, resulting in significant improvements of the quality of the ITO films that are commonly used as conductive transparent electrodes for photovoltaic structures. Starting from a single sintered target (purity 99.95%), ITO thin films of predefined thickness (230 nm, 300 nm and 370 nm) were deposited at room temperature by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering (rfMS). After deposition, the films were subjected to a RTA process at 575 °C (heating rate 20 °C/s), maintained at this temperature for 10 minutes, then cooled down to room temperature at a rate of 20 °C/s. The film structure was modified by changing the deposition thickness or the RTA process. X-ray diffraction investigations revealed a cubic nanocrystalline structure for the as-deposited ITO films. After RTA, polycrystalline compounds with a textured (222) plane were observed. X-ray photon spectroscopy was used to confirm the beneficial effect of the RTA treatment on the ITO chemical composition. Using a Tauc plot, values of the optical band gap ranging from 3.17 to 3.67 eV were estimated. These values depend on the heat treatment and the thickness of the sample. Highly conductive indium tin oxide thin films (ρ = 7.4 × 10−5 Ω cm) were obtained after RTA treatment in an open atmosphere. Such films could be used to manufacture transparent contact electrodes for solar cells.

show abstract