Highly conducting indium tin oxide films grown by ultraviolet-assisted pulsed laser deposition at low temperatures

Abstract Indium tin oxide films grown by conventional and ultraviolet-assisted pulsed laser deposition technique (PLD and UVPLD) on Si and Corning glass were analyzed by grazing and symmetric incidence X-ray diffraction. Films deposited at substrate temperatures up to 70 °C were amorphous, while films deposited at temperatures of 120 °C and higher showed good crystallinity, with a (2 2 2) texture. The diffraction peaks were split indicating that the films contained a two-layer structure. X-ray reflectivity studies showed that the film surface roughness was below 0.5 nm and their density approximately 7.20 g/cm 3 . Spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements indicated that the films were highly transparent, while X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy investigations showed homogeneous bulk chemical composition and a very small Sn enrichment in the surface region. The carrier mobility was rather high for films deposited at 40 and 70 °C and then decreased with the increase of the substrate temperature, because the onset of crystallization at such low temperatures produces a defective structure.