Defects evolution and their impacts on conductivity of indium tin oxide thin films upon thermal treatment
- Key Laboratory of Nuclear Solid State Physics Hubei Province, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072 (China)
Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films were deposited on silicon substrates by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering. The influence of annealing temperature on the crystallite, surface morphology, defects evolution, and electrical property of the thin films was studied. The conductivity of the ITO films was significantly enhanced by two orders of magnitude by increasing the annealing temperature up to 600 °C, which was interpreted in point view of defects evolution in ITO films as revealed by positron annihilation. It was interesting to find that positron diffusion length was amazingly comparable to crystallite size in ITO films annealed below 300 °C, indicating positrons were preferentially localized and annihilated in defects around crystallite boundaries. By further increasing the temperature, positron diffusion length was far beyond the grain size with little increment. This demonstrated that defects were effectively removed around grain boundaries. The results indicated defect structure around crystallite/grain boundaries played an important role on carrier transportation in nanocrystal ITO films.
- OSTI ID:
- 22490784
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 118, Issue 2; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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