Influence of illumination and decay of electrical resistance of ITO nanoscale layers

Indium tin oxide (ITO) is known as a transparent oxide with n-type electrical conductivity. However, the as grown ITO layers have high resistivity and the transparency is also limited. In this work, thin ITO layers were deposited by evaporation and then underwent a post-growth annealing. Annealing leads to a low electrical resistivity and to an enhanced transparency. Annealed samples show n-type conductivity. In this work, ITO layers of typically 10 nm thicknesses were deposited onto Si1 − xTixO2 covered glass substrates and then annealed. First the conductivity was evaluated after the annealing. The rough, quick estimation was performed by simple two point direct resistance measurement, and then van der Pauw configuration and collinear four-point probe method were applied. The light sensitivity and storage time dependent stability were studied. It is demonstrated that the resistance decreases due to illumination, though only in a small extent. The measure and speed of the decrease depend on the wavelength of the light and the process is very slow (up to hours). The recovery of the starting resistance is also a slow process.