EFFECTS OF ANNEALING ON THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF ITO THIN FILMS GROWN BY RADIO FREQUENCY MAGNETRON SPUTTERING

Indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) thin films were fabricated by radio frequency magnetron sputtering and were subjected to in-situ and ex-situ annealing, at 200°C, 300°C and 400°C, respectively. The in-situ thermal treatment consisted to intentionally heating the samples’ substrates, while the ex-situ annealing was performed using an oven, under ambient atmosphere. For the ITO samples subjected to ex-situ annealing, the density of oxygen vacancies increased leading to the decrease of the electrical resistivity. No significant changes were noticed in terms of transmission spectroscopy after the thermal treatment; while by evaluating the Skewness parameter was determined that the annealing improves the planarity of samples’ surface.