The growth of indium-tin-oxide thin films on glass substrates using DC reactive magnetron sputtering

The growth of indium-tin-oxide thin films as a function of thickness using DC reactive magnetron sputtering was investiaated. As the film thickness grew, the crystallinity increased showing both (222) and (400) planes. However, the peak intensity ratio of I-222/I-400 in the X-ray diffraction pattern decreased with the thickness, implying a preferred orientation along the (400) planes at the higher thickness. The grain sizes and domain boundaries grew clearly and the specific resistivities decreased with the film thickness. Two components of the specific resistivities, carrier mobility and carrier concentration, showed opposite behaviour: (i) increasing carrier concentration; (ii) decreasing carrier mobility with increase in the film thickness. Furthermore, the graded growth of the ITO thin film could also be shown from the optical properties and morphological properties by UV/Vis/NIR spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.