Fabrication and structure characterization of ITO transparent conducting film by sol-gel technique

Using In(NO3)3·5H2O and acetylacetone as raw materials and anhydrous SnCl4 as dopant, the transparent conducting indium tin oxide(ITO) films were prepared by sol-gel and dip-coating technique. The phase transformation, structure properties and physical properties (sheet resistance and transmittance) of the films were investigated by DTA-TG, XRD, SEM, four-probe method and UV-Vis spectrometry. The results indicate that it is feasible to fabricate ITO films on the quartz substrates by sol-gel technique, and the ITO films are formed by accumulating of particles with the size of several decades of nanometers. The prepared ITO film has cubic bixbyite structure, and (111) is its preferred plane. After five-times dip-coating, the ITO film has a thickness less than 150 nm, a sheet resistance of 110 Ω/□, a resistivity of 1.65 × 10−3 Ω·cm and a transparency of 90%.