Structural and morphological studies on Au doped In2O3 thin films by electron beam evaporation technique for solar cell applications

Abstract

High purity Au and In2O3 powders are taken as starting materials to prepare Au doped In2O3 powder by solid state reaction method. The prepared powders are cold pressed and made into pellets of 1cm diameter and 2 mm thickness, these pellets are sintered at 800°C for 12 hours to make robust targets for electron beam evaporation. The films are deposited on ultrasonically cleaned quartz substrates by electron beam evaporation technique and characterized using stylus profilometer, Grazing Incidence X-ray diffractometer (GIXRD),Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). GIXRD results suggest that both the films are polycrystalline in nature with cubic structure having (2 2 2) preferred orientation. The estimated surface roughness from AFM of the films found to increase with Au doping. EDS analysis confirms the stoichiometry of pure and Au doped In2O3 thin films.