Influence of base pressure on property of sputtering deposited ITO film

To systematically investigate the effect of base pressure on photoelectric properties of indium tin oxide (ITO) films, ITO films were prepared on glass substrates by RF magnetron sputtering with base pressures varying from 0.42 × 10−6 to 10 × 10−6 Torr in this work. Microstructure and photoelectric properties of ITO films were characterized by atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Hall-effect measurements and UV–vis transmission spectroscopy. It concluded that base pressure has an important influence on the properties of sputtering ITO films. As base pressure decreased, In2O3 was more easily decomposed into free oxygen and In2O3−x, the adhesion coefficient of oxygen reduced, and the oxygen vacancy content in ITO films increased. Therefore, with the decrease of the base pressure, the carrier concentration of ITO films increased, the resistivity of ITO films decreased, and the figure of merit of ITO films improved.