Sb ₂ O ₅ -doped indium saving indium-tin oxide thin films sputtered on preheated substrates

Amorphous antimony-doped indium tin oxide (IATO) thin films with reduced to 50% indium oxide content were prepared by sputtering in mixed argon-oxygen atmosphere onto preheated at 523 K glass substrates. The influence of different working gas flow rates and heat treatment temperatures on the electrical, optical, structural, and morphological properties of the films was characterized by means of four-point probe, UV–Vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and atomic force microscopy. It has been found from the optical measurement that films sputtered at oxygen flow rate of 1.2 sccm showed transmittance of about 94.8% at λ = 550 nm.