Effects of annealing temperature on structural and electrical properties of indium oxide thin films prepared by thermal evaporation

The effects of annealing temperature on the structural and electrical properties of indium oxide thin films of thickness 600 nm, prepared on glass substrate by thermal evaporation in vacuum, were investigated. The deposited films were annealed at 350 °C, 450 °C and 550 °C for 1 h. The structural and morphological properties of the films were investigated at different annealing temperatures by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The XRD patterns indicated amorphous structure of as-deposited films and annealed films had a preferred orientation along (222) plane and the crystallinity along with the grain size were augmented with annealing temperature. The SEM investigation showed that the grain size increased with annealing temperature. The behavior of electrical conductivity of the as-deposited and annealed films were determined by I−V measurement. The results exhibit the linear dependency with annealing temperature.