Thermally induced changes in amorphous indium-tin-oxide thin films

Amorphous indium-tin-oxide (ITO) transparent conducting film (15 at% Sn; thickness, 150-190 nm) was deposited on silicon wafer at room temperature by RF magnetron sputtering for temperature programmed desorption (TPD) in vacuum. The thermal crystallization was accompanied by evolution of water vapor (the main gas), argon and carbon dioxide. The total amount of evolved water vapor (H2O [mol]/(In [mol]+Sn [mol])> 0.2) was one or two orders of magnitude more than that from the nanocrystalline ITO films reported in our previous papers. The thermal change of amorphous ITO film was remarkably affected by the position of the substrate. An abrupt gas evolution was characteristic of the amorphous ITO films deposited on the position near the target center. The evolution temperature (548-563 K) was higher than the gas evolution temperature from the crystalline films. The far from center positioned films crystallized at higher temperature with relatively slower evolution of the gases.