The effects of post-deposition annealing on the microstructure of electron-beam evaporated indium tin oxide thin films

Abstract

ITO thin films have been produced by electron beam evaporation and submitted to a post-deposition annealing to study the effect of heat treatments on the optoelectronic characteristics of the films. The electrical and optical characteristics of the ITO thin films after annealing showed that high quality material can be prepared reproducibly with the transmission being largely controlled by annealing step in air and the electrical properties being improved by a subsequent anneal under a reducing atmosphere. In this paper we will report Transmission Electron Microscopy and X-Ray Diffraction results on the microstructural evolution of the ITO films at each stage of fabrication process. These will be correlated with the electrical and optical characteristics of the films at each corresponding stage.