Study of the morphological change of amorphous ITO films after temperature–humidity treatment

Amorphous indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films have been deposited on silicon and Corning 7059 glass substrates at room temperature (RT) and at 75 °C by direct-current magnetron sputtering method. After exposure of the two kinds of samples to the temperature–humidity (T–H) test, we find that there are two different types of circular structures are formed. RT ITO films are composed of granules, and 75 °C ITO films are composed of several different parts which have different Sn and In concentrations. Metallic ion concentration corrosion cells are used to explain the phenomena.