Investigation of hydrogen post-treatment effect on surface and optoelectronic properties of indium tin oxide thin films

In this study, the solution preparation and the annealing conditions were studied for spin-coated ITO films. Then, the effect of several post-treatment parameters such as H-2 concentration, temperature, and processing time were investigated for the H-2/Ar atmosphere. The properties of thin films were characterized by four-probe measurement set-up, UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It has been found that seven times deposition of 0.5 M solution including In:Sn with the ratio of 90:10 and annealing the films at 600 degrees C in air for 30 min was the optimum preparation condition for ITO films. Subjecting the ITO films to 10% H-2 containing Ar medium at 300 degrees C for 3 h was found as the most efficient process for post-treatment and as a result of that, approximately 70% efficiency was achieved on the reduction of the sheet resistance without affecting the transmittance of the thin films. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

By studying the solution preparation and post-treatment conditions, it was found that specific conditions can achieve the optimal preparation and post-treatment effects of ITO films, significantly improving the efficiency of sheet resistance reduction while not affecting the transparency of the films.