Microstructural Study of Ultraviolet-Assisted Pulse Laser depoisted Indium Tin Oxide Films

Indium tin oxide is one of the most used transparent conducting oxides. In order to reduce the processing thermal budget and enhance compatibility of these films for such applications as transparent electrodes for solar cells and flat panel displays, lower deposition temperatures are desirable. The addition of a non-thermal energy source during deposition, in this case, a mercury lamp, has the ability to lower the required substrate temperature during processing while increasing the oxygen content of the deposited film through the added contribution of ionized species into the deposited material. We investigated the microstructure of UV-assisted pulsed laser deposited indium tin oxide films. Comparisons between the UV and non-UV films were made in order to judge the effectiveness of the UV radiation in achieving desirable properties.