Electrical properties of tin-doped indium oxide thin films prepared by a dip coating

Indium-tin-oxide (ITO) transparent conducting films were prepared by a dip coating process and heated in air at 1000 °C, which is much higher than the temperature applied in a normal dip coating process, where heating occurs at approximately 500 °C. This was done in order to enhance grain growth. Heat-resistant substrates silicon, sapphire and YSZ were used. Grain growth (average size = 52 nm), high carrier electron mobility (average value = 46 m2 V−1 s−1) and low resistivity (average value = 3.7 × 10−4 Ω cm) were all achieved successfully after post-deposition annealing at 600 °C in a N2-0.1%H2 atmosphere, for all of the films except the one deposited on a silicon substrate, whose respective values were 28 nm, 19 m2 V−1 s−1 and 1.0 × 10−3 Ω cm.