Effect of Annealing Treatment on Electrical and Optical Properties of ATO Thin Films by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Transparent conducting antimony doped tin oxide (ATO) films have been prepared on quartz glass substrate by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method which is distinctive to maintain the elemental components between the targets and the obtained thin films under optimal conditions. The effect of annealing temperature on the electrical and optical properties of the ATO thin films has been discussed. The annealing treatments have been often employed to reduce the defects and enlarge the grain size for more desirable crystalline structure. As the annealing temperature increases, the ATO thin films exhibited a slightly enhanced crystallinity. Furthermore, annealing treatment can promote both conductivity and transmittance significantly, especially for conductivity. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is used to explore the variation of Sb5+/Sb3+ ratio against the annealing temperature. The optimal resistivity is 2.7 x 10(-3) Omega cm and the average transmittance is about 92% at annealing temperature of 550 degrees C.