Annealing of the indium tin oxide films with an electrical current

Indium tin oxide (ITO) films were grown by reactive middle frequency magnetron sputtering. Postdeposition annealing of transparent and conductive ITO films was performed with an electrical current in vacuum and air. The electrical power released by the current into the film during annealing was maintained at a constant level. The film structure and properties were characterized in situ by synchrotron produced X-ray diffraction, spectroscopic ellipsometry and resistance measurements.
The XRD data demonstrate transformation of the as-deposited amorphous film structure in to
crystalline during annealing. The films annealed in vacuum show two-stage decrease in the film resistance: first in amorphous state and second during crystallization. Increasing the electrical power of annealing hastens the onset of the second stage and reduces its total time. Resistance of the films annealed in air have three-stage behaviour: the resistance decreases at the beginning, then it starts to increase and finally, it decreases again. The experimental results are discussed in the terms of oxygen vacancy generation and tin donor activation.
Comparison of these results with data obtained during annealing of the indium oxide film without tin doping demonstrates significance of tin donor activation on the film resistance during crystallization process.
The mass analysis of the gas fractions escaping the ITO film during subsequent annealing in vacuum of the samples annealed already in air and vacuum was carried out. It is established that the samples annealed in air contain approximately one order of magnitude higher amount of water in comparison to the samples annealed in vacuum. This result shows that the water absorption deteriorates the improvement of the film resistance during annealing in air.