Cumulative Effect of Post-Deposition Annealing and Elevated Substrate Temperature On Structural, Electrical, Optical Properties and Wettability of RF-Sputtered ITO Thin Films

Abstract

In this study, the influence of substrate temperature and post-deposition annealing on the structural, electrical, and optical properties of indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films has been systematically investigated. ITO films were deposited using an RF magnetron sputtering system at varying substrate temperatures. The as-deposited films revealed that higher substrate temperatures lead to enhanced crystallinity, improved electrical conductivity, and greater optical transparency. Furthermore, post-deposition annealing of room-temperature-grown films resulted in an increase in visible transmittance from 77 % to 82 %, accompanied by a rise in sheet resistance from 30 to 70 Ω/sq. Comparative analysis indicated that films directly deposited at elevated substrate temperatures exhibit superior performance, achieving visible transparency of approximately 85 % and a lower sheet resistance of around 33 Ω/sq, outperforming their annealed counterparts.