Electrical, optical, and structural properties of InZnSnO electrode films grown by unbalanced radio frequency magnetron sputtering

Abstract

We have investigated the electrical, optical, structural, and annealing properties of indium zinc tin oxide (IZTO) films prepared by an unbalanced radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering at room temperature, in a pure At ambient environment. It was found that the electrical and optical properties of unbalanced RF sputter grown IZTO films at room temperature were influenced by RF power and working pressure. At optimized growth condition, we could obtain the IZfO film with the low resistivity of 3.77 x 10(-4) Omega cm, high transparency of similar to 87% and figure of merit value of 21.2 x 10(-3) Omega(-1), without the post annealing process, even though it was completely an amorphous structure due to low substrate temperature. In addition, the field emission scanning electron microscope analysis results showed that all IZTO films are amorphous structures with very smooth surfaces regardless of the RF power and working pressure. However, the rapid thermal annealing process above the temperature of 400 degrees C lead to an abrupt increase in resistivity and sheet resistance due to the transition of film structure from amorphous to crystalline, which was confirmed by X-ray diffraction examination. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.