Electrical and optical properties of ITO films grown at room temperature on glass substrates using pulsed electron deposition

Sn-doped In2O3 (ITO) films similar to 70nm were deposited on glass substrates using pulsed electron deposition (PED). A series of films were prepared by varying oxygen pressure (3.1 mTorr to 20 mTorr) in growth chamber during deposition and characterized for structural, electrical and optical properties. Resistivity as low as 2.94x10(-3) Omega-cm and an average transmittance similar to 80% in the visible spectrum were achieved in films after annealing. As deposited films have a roughness of 2.17 nm and roughness (rms) was seen to increase with increasing oxygen pressure, these values are comparable to films achieved by other methods and better than the roughness of commercially available polycrystalline ITO films indicating that films prepared by PED technique are smoother. The results suggest that PED is a viable technique for exploring ITO films.