Surface morphology modelling for the resistivity analysis of low temperature sputtered indium tin oxide thin films on polymer substrates

Abstract

Amorphous or weakly crystalline indium tin oxide (ITO) thin film samples have been prepared on polymethylmethacrylate and polyethylene terephthalate substrates by RF-magnetron sputtering at a low substrate temperature. The surface morphological and electrical properties of the ITO layers were measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and a standard four-point probe measurement. The effect of surface morphology on the resistivity of ITO thin films was studied, which presented some different variations from crystalline films. Then, a simplified film system model, including the substrate, continuous ITO layer and ITO surface grain, was proposed to deal with these correlations. Based on this thin film model and the AFM images, a quadratic potential was introduced to simulate the characteristics of the ITO surface morphology, and the classical Kronig–Penney model, the semiconductor electrical theory and the modified Neugebauer–Webb model were used to expound the detailed experimental results. The modelling equation was highly in accord with the experimental variations of the resistivity on the characteristics of the surface morphology.