Development of higher performance indium tin oxide films at a very low temperature (< 80 °C) by the neutral beam-assisted sputtering process

At very low temperatures (< 80 °C), improved performance indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films with a low resistivity of 4.22 × 10−4 Ωcm and high transmittance > 90% at 550 nm were developed using the neutral beam-assisted sputtering (NBAS) technique, which included a cyclic inter-treatment process with an Ar neutral beam. Transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction showed that the neutral particles with hyper-thermal energy was able to enhance the formation of the nano-crystalline phase and activate the dopant without additional heating or plasma damage during ITO thin film deposition.