The evolution of the structural, electrical and optical properties in indium-tin-oxide thin film on glass substrate by DC reactive magnetron sputtering

The evolution of the structural, electrical and optical properties in indium-tin-oxide (ITO) thin film on glass substrate prepared by DC reactive magnetron sputtering was investigated. The variation of the structural, electrical and optical properties could be largely divided into two regions of (i) the initial region I roughly up to the critical film thickness of 50 nm and (ii) the stable region II above the critical thickness. As the film thickness grew, X-ray diffraction (XRD) peak intensities of both (2 2 2) and (4 0 0) planes increased continuously and the film morphology became clear. The peak intensity ratio of I222/I400 decreased gradually with the thickness, implying a preferred orientation along the (4 0 0) plane at a higher thickness.In the region II over the critical film thickness of 50 nm, where the structural evolution was clearly observable, the carrier density also increased over 9.0×1020/cm3 and the specific resistivity was lower than 140 μΩ cm.