Structural, electrical and optical properties of sputter-deposited Nb-doped TiO2 (TNO) polycrystalline films

Abstract Transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films of polycrystalline Nb-doped TiO 2 (TNO) were fabricated by post-annealing reactively sputtered amorphous films under H 2 atmosphere. Carrier transport properties of the H 2 -annealed films were found to be strongly dependent on substrate temperature T s and oxygen content in sputtering atmosphere. A minimum resistivity ( ρ ) of 9.5 × 10 − 4 Ω cm and an average visible transmittance of ∼ 75% were obtained at T s = RT and oxygen content of 10%. This ρ value is of the same order as those of epitaxial TNO films, indicating that polycrystalline TNO has sufficient potential as a practical TCO suitable for large-area applications.