Structural, Optical and Electrical Properties of ITO Thin Films

Transparent and conductive thin films of indium tin oxide were fabricated on glass substrates by the thermal evaporation technique. Tin doped indium ingots with low tin content were evaporated in vacuum (1.33 × 10−7 kpa) followed by an oxidation for 15 min in the atmosphere in the temperature range of 600–700°C. The structure and phase purity, surface morphology, optical and electrical properties of thin films were studied by x-ray diffractometry and Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microcopy and atomic force microscopy, UV–visible spectrometry and Hall measurements in the van der Pauw configuration. The x-ray diffraction study showed the formation of the cubical phase of polycrystalline thin films. The morphological analysis showed the formation of ginger like structures and the energy dispersive x-ray spectrum confirmed the presence of indium (In), tin (Sn) and oxygen (O) elements. Hall measurements confirmed n-type conductivity of films with low electrical resistivity (ρ) ∼ 10−3 Ω cm and high carrier concentration (n) ∼ 1020 cm−3. For prevalent scattering mechanisms in the films, experimental data was analyzed by calculating a mean free path (L) using a highly degenerate electron gas model. Furthermore, to investigate the performance of the deposited films as a transparent conductive material, the optical figure of merit was obtained for all the samples.