Applied Surface Science, Vol.254, No.11, 3504-3508, 2008
Thickness dependence of structural, electrical and optical properties of indium tin oxide (ITO) films deposited on PET substrates
Without intentionally heating the substrates, indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films of thicknesses from 72 nm to 447 nm were prepared on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates by DC reactively magnetron sputtering with pre-deposition substrate surfaces plasma cleaning. The dependence of structural, electrical, and optical properties on the films thickness were systematically investigated. It was found that the crystal grain size increases, while the transmittance, the resistivity, and the sheet resistance decreases as the film thickness was increasing. The thickest film (similar to 447 nm) was found of the lowest sheet resistance 12.6 Omega/square, and its average optical transmittance (400-800 nm) and the 550 nm transmittance was 85.2% and 90.4%, respectively. The results indicate clearly that dependence of the structural, electrical, and optical properties of the films on the film thickness reflected the improvement of the film crystallinity with the film thickness. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:multi-arc ion plating;DC magnetron sputtering;indium tin oxide (ITO);PET substrates;sheet resistance;optical transmittance