Low temperature and self catalytic growth of ultrafine ITO nanowires by electron beam evaporation method and their optical and electrical properties

•ITO nanowires were grown by e-beam evaporation method.•ITO nanowires growth done at low substrate temperature of 350 °C.•Nanowires growth was carried out without use of catalyst and reactive oxygen gas.•Nanowires growth proceeds via self catalytic VLS growth.•Grown nanowires have diameter 10–20 nm and length 1–4 μm long.•ITO nanowire films have shown good antireflection property.

We report the self catalytic growth of Sn-doped indium oxide (ITO) nanowires (NWs) over a large area glass and silicon substrates by electron beam evaporation method at low substrate temperatures of 250–400 °C. The ITO NWs growth was carried out without using an additional reactive oxygen gas and a metal catalyst particle. Ultrafine diameter (∼10–15 nm) and micron long ITO NWs growth was observed in a temperature window of 300–400 °C. Transmission electron microscope studies confirmed single crystalline nature of the NWs and energy dispersive spectroscopy studies on the NWs confirmed that the NWs growth proceeds via self catalytic vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth mechanism. ITO nanowire films grown on glass substrates at a substrate temperature of 300–400 °C have shown ∼2–6% reflection and ∼70–85% transmission in the visible region. Effect of deposition parameters was systematically investigated. The large area growth of ITO nanowire films would find potential applications in the optoelectronic devices.

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