Structural and electrical properties of sputtering power and gas pressure on Ti-dope In2O3 transparent conductive films by RF magnetron sputtering

Transparent conductive titanium-doped indium oxide (ITiO) films were deposited on Corning glass substrates by RF magnetron sputtering method. The effects of RF sputtering power and Ar gas pressure on the structural and electrical properties of the films were investigated experimentally, using a 2.5 wt% TiO2-doped In2O3 target. The deposition rate was in the range of around 20-60 nm/min under the experimental conditions of 5-20 mTorr of gas pressure and 220-350 W of RF power. The lowest resistivity of 1.2 x 10(-4) Omega cm, the average optical transmittance of 75%, the high hall mobility of 47.03 cm(2)/V s and the relatively low carrier concentration of 1.15E+21 cm(-3) were obtained for the ITiO film, prepared at RF power of 300 W and Ar gas pressure of 15 mTorr. This resistivity of 1.2 x 10(-4) Omega cm is low enough as a transparent conducting layer in various electro-optical devices and it is comparable with that of ITO or ZnO:Al conducting layer. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.