The electrical and optical properties of indium zinc tin oxide thin films with different Sn/Zn ratio

Indium zinc tin oxide (IZTO) thin films with two different chemical compositions, i.e. IZTO15 and IZTO25, where In content was fixed at 60 at.% and Sn content was 15 and 25 at.%, respectively, were deposited onto alkaline-free glass substrate at temperature from 37 °C to 600 °C. The deposition process was carried out in argon using an RF magnetron sputter. After deposition, the films were annealed in argon atmosphere at 450 °C for 30 min. The effect of substrate temperature and annealing treatment was investigated, and the minimum resistivity value of 3.44 × 10− 4Ω.cm was obtained from the film deposited at 400 °C using IZTO25 target followed by rapid thermal annealing at 450 °C for 30 min. The average optical transmittance was kept fairly high over 80%. It was proven that both substrate temperature and thermal annealing were important parameters in lowering the electrical resistivity without deteriorating optical properties.