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Electrical and Optical Properties of Indium-tin Oxide (ITO) Films by Ion-

Assisted Deposition (IAD) at Room Temperature

Article  in  International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing · August 2013

DOI: 10.1007/s12541-013-0197-5

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 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 14, No. 8, pp. 1465-1469 AUGUST 2013 / 1465
DOI: 10.1007/s12541-013-0197-5

Electrical and Optical Properties of Indium-tin Oxide

(ITO) Films by Ion-Assisted Deposition (IAD) at Room
Temperature

Mansour S. Farhan1, Erfan Zalnezhad2, Abdul Razak Bushroa2,#, and Ahmed Aly Diaa Sarhan2
1 College of Engineering, Wasit University, Iraq
2 Center of Advanced Manufacturing and Material Processing, Department of Engineering Design and Manufacture, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia
# Corresponding Author / E-mail: bushroa@um.edu.my, TEL: +60-7967-4593, FAX: +60-7967-5330

KEYWORDS: IAD, ITO thin films, Electrical properties, Optical properties

Indium-tin oxide (ITO) films have been traditionally deposited at elevated substrate temperature of 400oC to achieve low resistivity
and high transmission. In some cases, films deposited at low substrate temperatures can be annealed at higher temperature to achieve
lower resistivity. In this paper, thin films of ITO with various oxygen flow rates are prepared by ion-assisted electron beam evaporation
at room temperature. Electrical, optical and structural properties of ITO thin films have been investigated with the function of oxygen
flow rate, rate of deposition and layer thickness. Low resistivity of 7.5 × 10-4Ω-cm, high optical transmittance of 85% at wavelength
550 nm, optical band-gap of 4.2 eV and crystalline ITO films can be achieved at room temperature almost one order smaller than
that prepared by other method.

Manuscript received: March 25, 2013 / Accepted: May 26, 2013

1. Introduction film quality.

A distinctive class of transparent oxide films comprises electrically
conducting. While most oxides are fine insulators, some are wide band-
gap semiconductors. Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films are widely
utilized in numerous industrial applications due to the unique combined
properties of transparency to visible light and electrical conductivity.1
Coatings on glass with highly transparent conductive oxide films
(TCO) are mostly performed with indium tin oxide layers (ITO). This
oxide material is very common in applications where both high
electrical conductivity and optical transmittance are essential. ITO
films are reactively sputtered with single magnetron sputter sources of
different sizes. The aim of ITO process technology development is to
obtain stable film properties for large-area coatings with exceptionally
low resistivity and high transmittance within the visible spectrum
range.
ITO films may be prepared in several ways including reactive
evaporation8-10 or sputtering, DC magnetron reactive10,11 or RF
sputtering,12-14 as well as Ultralow-Pressure Sputtering15 and sol-gel.16
All of these processes involve a reactive oxygen background. The
oxygen level during the procedure is a critical component of controlling
ITO films are highly degenerate n-type semiconductors, and have
low electrical resistivity (10-4Ω-cm) along with high carrier
concentration. Furthermore, ITOs have a wide band-gap (Eg > 4.1 eV)
and high transmittance (> 85%) in the visible range.2 This unique
combination of electrical and optical properties has prompted
numerous researchers to thoroughly investigate ITO film growth and
characterization. ITO finds potential applications in a number of
devices, such as flat panel displays, solar cells, gas sensors, camera
lenses, anti-reflection coatings, heat reflection mirrors and surface
heaters for automobile windows.3 In the last 22 years, considerable data
has been reported on ion sources4 utilized for both substrates pre-
cleaning and to assist with thin film deposition and growth processes.6,7
Currently a plethora of ion sources are available for commercial use
besides countless improvements of older designs. Ion-assisted
deposition (IAD) modifies many of the physical characteristics of thin
films. Since visible transmission and electrical conductivity are
fundamentally in conflict with each other, ITO seems one of the better
film materials available for such applications. However, as an oxygen-
deficient material it behaves like metal, becoming conductive, optically
absorbing and highly reflective in the infrared region.

© KSPE and Springer 2013

 1466 / AUGUST 2013 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 14, No. 8
Traditionally, superior films (i.e. low resistivity, high transmission)
are deposited at elevated temperatures.9-11 Honda, et al17 studied the
oxygen content of deposited films at a range of substrate temperatures
from ambient room temperature to 400oC. In some instances, films
deposited at low temperatures can subsequently be annealed at higher
temperatures to achieve lower resistivity.9,10 Applying a broad-beam
ion source would be ideal since it runs on pure oxygen. ITO has a
refractive index with a real part of roughly 2.05.4,9,18 All applications
allow for a low-index, quarter-wave outer layer to increase
transmission. The higher resistivity applications have no limitations to
film structure. Therefore, ITO into a multi-layer anti-reflection structure,
and for this reason it is desirable to fully characterize the films’ optical
properties.
In this study, ITO films were deposited at room temperature by
electron-beam evaporation and ion-assisted deposition (IAD). The
effects of oxygen flow rate, deposition rate and layer thickness on the
electrical, optical and structural properties of deposited ITO films on
glass substrate at room temperature are investigated.
2. Experimental techniques
This study was conducted in a fully automated turbo-pumped
coating chamber equipped with resistive sources, 6-pocket 270o, 14 kW
electron beam gun (E-gun) with a quartz crystal rate/thickness
controller. The “Kaufman” ion source is characterized by placing a
Faraday probe into the tooling around the outer radius. A general view
Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of the deposition system
Fig. 2 Transmission spectra of ITO films
of the equipment can be seen in Fig. 1. The evaporation source material
is ITO, 10% tin oxide and 90% indium oxide. The pressure during the
evaporation process was around 5 × 10-6 mbar and was initiated at
ambient temperature. Film thickness and evaporation rate were
monitored for all films by a quartz-crystal monitor. During deposition,
the ion current density and ion energy were maintained at 90 µA/cm2
and 150 eV, respectively.
Oxygen flow rate was regarded as a variable parameter, and hence
configured at 20, 25 and 30 sccm flow rates monitored by a mass flow
controller (MKS). The electrical sheet resistance of the ITO films was
measured through the four-point probe method, while the transmittance
spectra were measured with a UV-NIR spectrophotometer (Perkin-
Elmer Lambda 900) in double-beam configuration. The crystalline
quality of the ITO films was determined via X-ray diffractometer
(XRD) analysis at room temperature using Cu Kα radiation. Prior to
loading the glass substrates, cleaning by an ultrasonic washer with
acetone, alcohol, and de-ionized water was done to remove organic
contamination after which they were blown in dry nitrogen gas.
3. Results and discussions
The influence of oxygen ion-beam density on optical transmission
is presented in Fig. 2. All films have thickness of 200 nm 0.6 nm/sec
rate of deposition and were deposited at 150 eV ion-beam energy and
0.6 nm/sec rate of deposition. Clearly, the ITO film prepared by oxygen
ions bombardment during deposition and becomes transparent due to
the high oxygen ion source beam reactivity. At the same ion energy,
irradiation with high ion-flux density improves the transparency,
indicating that the ratio of O/(In + Sn) approaches the sesquioxides.
Figure 3 shows the optical transmittance behavior of ITO thin films
deposited at 0.6 nm/sec deposition rate, 140 nm thickness, 150 eV ion
energy, 90 µA/cm2 ion density and 20 sccm oxygen flow rate as a
function of wavelength. The ITO thin films obviously have excellent
optical transmission in the visible range, and at 550 nm the wavelength
is 85%.
The refractive index (n) and extinction coefficient (k) values of ITO
films in the wavelength range of 400-800 nm are calculated from the
interference pattern of the transmission spectra.19 The technique for
determining the optical constants of the thin films based on the
measurements of the transmitted light intensity20-22 was utilized to
develop a computer program to calculate the n and k values. Explicit
expressions for n and k were derived from the fringe pattern of the
transmission spectrum of a thin transparent film assumed to be
surrounded by non-absorbing media. The maxima and minima from the
Fig. 3 Optical transmittance versus the wavelength
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 14, No. 8 AUGUST 2013 / 1467

transmission spectra of transparent film were applied for computation.
The variation of the refractive and extinction coefficient for ITO
films deposited at 150 eV ion energy and 90 µA/cm2 ion density as a
function of oxygen flow rate is demonstrated in Fig. 4. It can be seen
that the refractive index (Fig. 4(a)) reaches a maximum at 550 nm
wavelength and 20 sccm oxygen flow rate, beyond which it decreases.
The increase refractive index at oxygen flow rates of up to 20 sccm can
be explained by the sufficient oxidation of ITO films during the
deposition process. However, the decrease in refractive index beyond
20 sccm oxygen flow rate may be attributed to the oxygen absorption
in the grain boundaries. Figure 4(b) indicates that the extinction
coefficient decreases as oxygen flow rate increases, something
attributed to the oxygen absorbed in the films throughout the deposition
process.
ITO thin films at oxygen flow rates between 20 and 30 sccm were
prepared onto glass substrates. The sheet resistance of the ITO thin
films deposited at various oxygen flow rates is shown in Table 1.
The sheet resistance demonstrates that a maximum value is reached
at 20 sccm oxygen flow rate. The rising oxygen flow rate causes
increasing oxygen incorporation into the oxygen-deficient ITO films,
thus raising the films’ sheet resistance by compensating for oxygen
vacancy in the evaporated ITO films. However, the increase of oxygen
flow rate to over 25 sccm results in diminished film sheet resistance.
The sheet resistance (Rs) measurements were performed using the four-
probe method. By assuming that film thickness is uniform, the film
resistivity (ρ) is determined the simple relation ρ = R.d, where d is the film
thickness. The resistivity of ITO thin films increases from 75 × 10-4Ω-cm
to 400 × 10-4Ω-cm owing to the rising carrier concentration. It is
possible for oxygen flow rate to alter the carrier concentration due to
oxygen vacancies. Transmittance increases with increasing oxygen
flow rates up to 25 sccm while further oxygen rate increase lowers the
transmittance. The optical transmittance can be increased with a
reasonable rise in the oxygen flow rate. When the oxygen flow rate
reaches 25 sccm, the optical transmittance of the ITO thin films with
thickness of 140 nm has the highest value. If the oxygen flow rate goes
beyond 25 sccm, the optical transmittance begins to decrease. These
results can be explained as follows. At lower oxygen flow rates the
particles that evaporate from the target cannot be oxidized sufficiently,
and the prepared ITO thin films become anoxic and sub-oxides such as
InOx and SnOx. Subsequently, the transmittance oxidizes at higher
oxygen flow rates. However, once oxygen flow rate goes over a
maximum value, the redundant oxygen may be absorbed by defects
such as grain boundaries and micro-cracks. Furthermore, the optical
band-gap values of these films can be calculated from the transmittance
spectra. In the strong region, the absorption coefficient (α) is calculated
from Lambert's formula:23,24

α = d-1 ln (1/T) (1)

where T and d are transmittance and film thickness, respectively. The

absorption is at a minimum at low energy and grows with optical energy
in a manner similar to the absorption edge of the semiconductors. The
absorption coefficient for directly allowed transition for a simple
parabolic scheme can be ascribed as a function of incident photon
energy as in Equation (2):

αhv = (hv-Eg)1/2 (2)

where hv is photon energy and Eg is the optical band-gap. The ITO

thin films’ optical band–gap may be determined by plotting (αhv)2
versus hv, and by means of extrapolation. It is observed that the
optical band-gap increases from 4.15 to 4.20 eV, corresponding to the
increasing oxygen flow rate from 20 to 25 sccm. The first thin films
are made at half-wave optical thickness (~ 140 nm) in the visible
region. Low deposition rate parameters and oxygen flow yield
Fig. 4 Variation of refractive index and extinction coefficient with pressures in the 2 × 10-4mbar range. Deposition rate and pressure are
wavelength for ITO films deposited at different oxygen flow rate comparable to those employed for high-temperature depositions. The
first film is optically adequate (i.e. clear and non-absorbing) but is not
Table 1 Properties of ITO thin films at different oxygen flow rates a conductor. Increasing the deposition rate and reducing the oxygen
flow rate results in significant resistivity reduction while fairly good
Oxygen flow Sheet
Resistivity Transmittance Energy band- transparency is maintained in the visible range. Although several
rate resistance
(10-4Ω.cm) (%) gap (eV)
(sccm) (Ω/□ ) parameters are varied, resistivity drops significantly at higher
20 800 75 84 4.15 deposition rates and transmission at the half-wave optical thickness
25 600 165 85 4.20 remains fairly high.
30 250 400 84 4.17 The changes in sheet resistance (Rs) of the ITO thin films in line
 1468 / AUGUST 2013
with deposition rate are shown in Figure 5. Sheet resistance (Rs)
diminishes with rising deposition rates. Deposition rate can affect metal
oxidation and consequently, ITO film density. At low deposition rates,
the metal can be fully oxidized and sheet resistance increases, while
deposition rates there are not enough oxygen ions to react with the
metal so sheet resistance increases.
The deposited ITO films’ resistivity dependence on thickness is
Fig. 5 Sheet resistance variation with deposition rate
Fig. 6 Resistivity variation with film thickness
Fig. 7 The variation of resistivity with deposition rate
Fig. 8 The variation of grain size with ion energy
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 14, No. 8
illustrated in Fig. 6. The film (crystalline) demonstrates 10-3Ω-cm
resistivity with decreasing thickness, meaning that resistivity decreases.
The resistivity of the 200 nm thick film (crystalline) reaches 7.5 × 10-4-cm
which is more than one order smaller than that of the film produced by
laser ablation (1.2 × 10-2-cm) at room temperature.21 Essentially, not
only does the surface roughness improve when ITO films change from
crystalline to amorphous form, but so does conductivity.
Deposition rate, oxygen ion beam energy and ion current density
are three key parameters that affect performance and control the
quality of ITO films deposited at room temperature. Among these,
deposition rate plays the most important role. Figure 7 shows the
dependence of ITO film resistivity on deposition rate. At low
deposition rates, it is simple to incorporate more oxygen atoms into
the deposited film under constant ion beam parameters (150 eV,
90 µA/cm2), something that is reflected clearly in the film’s
crystalline structure. However, at higher deposition rates, resistivity
increases. Higher rates are generally preferred to avoid ITO
decomposition. Since the composition of ITO films is determined by
arriving ratio of In, Sn and O2, it is crucial to identify an optimum
deposition rate to match present oxygen ion beam.
Figure 8 presents the change in grain size with ion-energy of ITO
films deposited at a fixed ion current density of 90 µA/cm2 on glass
substrate at room temperature. Grain size (D) is calculated using the
Scherrer formula (Equation 3) from the full width at half maximum
(FWHM) of the XRD peak (222) plane.
D = 0.94λ/βcosθ (3)
where λ is the X-ray wavelength, β is the FWHM of the diffraction
peak and θ is the diffraction angle. Grain size increases at ion energies
of up to 200 eV, following which a decreasing trend occurs. The film’s
crystalline structure augments from an amorphous character at 50 eV to
crystalline at 150 eV. The decreasing grain size above 150 eV degrades
crystallinity in the present study. Critical ion energy at 150 eV which
shows higher crystallinity is observed for ITO films.
4. Conclusion
In this research work, high-quality ITO films were prepared onto
glass substrate at room temperature using low-energy oxygen ion
beam-assisted deposition. Throughout bombardment during deposition
with ion energy of 150 eV, ion density of 90 µA/cm2 and ITO film
thickness of 140 nm prepared at a deposition rate of 0.6 nm/sec, a
crystalline structure is exhibited with resistivity of 75 × 10-4Ω-cm, 4.2
eV optical band-gap and optical transmittance of 85% and 550 nm
wavelength. According to the results, low-energy ion energy-assisted
deposition is an attractive method of producing high-quality ITO films.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was funded by the high impact research (HIR) grant
number: HIR-MOHE-16001-00-D000027 from the Ministry of Higher
Education, Malaysia.
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 14, No. 8 AUGUST 2013 / 1469

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