Real-time investigations of ITO film structure evolution during annealing

The real-time in-situ evolution of the ITO film structure during annealing was continuously investigated by synchrotron X-ray diffraction at ROssendorf Beam Line (ROBL), which is located at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France. The amorphous ITO films are produced by reactive pulsed middle frequency dual magnetron sputtering on the Si substrates covered with SiO2. The post-deposition annealing in vacuum of ITO samples was carried out with the ROBL UHV annealing chamber equipped with a hemispherical Be dome at two annealing modes: termal annealing (at constant temperature within the range of 200 - 240 °C) and annealing with an electrical current (at constant electrical power within the range of 1.25 – 2.0 W). In both experiments the resistivity behavior of the ITO film was monitored in situ by the four point probe technique or direct electrical measurement.
The evolution of XRD peaks of crystalline In2O3 phase with annealing time was shown. The time dependence of XRD peak integral intensity has the typical S-like shape. Using the Kolmogorov–Avrami–Johnson–Mehl equation for the dependence of the crystalline fraction on the annealing time, the kinetic parameters of crystallization process were determined. The value of kinetic exponent n is within the range of 2-3 for the thermal annealing and within the range of 1-2 for the annealing with an electrical current. The activation energy for the crystallisation at thermal annealing was found as 1.5 +/- 0.2 eV, whereas the activation energy at electrical current annealing was determined as 0.8 +/- 0.1 eV. It could be suggested that an electrical current stimulates the crystallization process.