ITO thin films prepared by a microwave heating

ITO thin films were prepared by irradiating 2.45 GHz of microwave with an output power of 700 W using a commercial kitchen microwave oven. A substrate temperature went up and down rapidly between 100 and 650 degrees C in a minute by a dielectric loss of SnO2 layer pre-deposited on a glass substrate. We found that the electrical and optical properties of films were affected by the atmosphere in a microwave irradiation, while the sintering was completed within a few minutes. Although the electrical resistivity was not reduced below 5.0 x 10(-4) Omega-cm in this study, the results lead to the possibility of a practical rapid synthesis of ITO transparent conducting oxide films. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.