Deposited indium-tin-oxide (ITO) transparent conductive films by reactive low-voltage ion plating (RLVIP) technique

Indian-tin-oxide ITO transparent conductive films were deposited by the Reactive low-voltage ion plating (RLVIP) technique. CO2 and O2 gases were used as reactive gases coming into the vacuum. The effect of the CO2 gas flow rate on the optical and electrical properties of the ITO films was studied in detail. The results showed that the CO2 gas had similar oxidizing action to O2 except for the magnitude of the flow rate. But, the conductivity of ITO films were not sensitive to the CO2 gas flow rate over a wide region in contrast to the results to O2. The optical transmission in the visible spectral region as well as the infrared reflectivity of ITO films varied as the CO2 flow rate changed. Thus, a better quality ITO film was obtained by the RLVIP technique with reactive gas of 30 sccm CO2, having of more than 90% transmittance, above 80% reflectance in long-wave IR and 28.7 Ω/□ sheet resistance.