Sputtered Indium Tin Oxide Films for Optoelectronic Applications

Abstract

High‐quality indium tin oxide (ITO) films have been fabricated using a DC sputtering technique in a pure argon atmosphere with a postannealing in an oxygen environment at atmosphere pressure. Structural, morphological, and electro‐optical parameters of the ITO films were studied at different annealing temperatures for the films fabricated on two types of glass substrates, soda lime and alkali‐free substrates. A comparative analysis shows that low‐cost soda lime substrates are suitable for the fabrication of high‐quality nanocrystalline ITO films after annealing them at 300°C. This result is of great importance for reducing the cost of thin film solar cells, in which ITO films serve as transparent conducting electrodes. We present a comparison of the properties of sputtered ITO films with those fabricated using a spray pyrolysis deposition technique, which is useful for some optoelectronic applications.