Effect of O2/ar ratio on optical properties of indium tin oxide thin films deposited by dc magnetron sputtering

Abstract

Indium tin oxide thin films were deposited by DC magnetron sputtering from In2O3 and SnO2 as a ceramic target with 10 wt% of SnO2. The films were sputtered under pressure of 2?10-3 torr, power density of 1.23 W/cm2 and substrate temperature of 200 oC. The main goal is to improve the optical properties of ITO thin films by using a mixture of oxygen and argon gasses with O2/Ar ratios varies from 0.0 to 0.5. The best average values of optical properties in the visible light region were found at the O2/Ar ratio of 0.2. The highest transmittance was 90.68% and the lowest reflectance was 9.42%. The result showed reflectance decreased by 5.52% compared to the films sputtered with only Ar.