Annealing effects on properties of LaB6/ATO thin films deposited by magnetron sputtering

A series of LaB6/ATO films were deposited by magnetron sputtering at room temperature with the same deposition parameters. After deposition, the films were annealed at 400 °C, 700 °C and 1000 °C, respectively. The structure, morphology and opto-electrical characteristics of films were studied. It was found that the temperature for primary nucleation of LaB6 films was about 700 °C. The crystallinity and transmissivity increased with increasing annealing temperature. After annealing at 1000 °C, the films exhibited a much higher transmissivity in the visible region than in the near-infrared area. However, the resistivity increased by one order of magnitude after heat treatment and the films without annealing presented the best electrical property.