A Study on Improvement of Optical/Electrical Properties of Indium-Tin-Oxide Thin Films Prepared by Sol-Gel Process

Ar plasma treatment was carried out to reduce the sheet resistance of indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films. To verify how the concentration of oxygen vacancies in the film increased with the Ar plasma treatment time, cumulative and continuous plasma treatments were conducted. In addition, to improve the transmittance and reduced the sheet resistance the PDMS layer was as a stamp on the surface of ITO. The oxidation of the PDMS stamp appears to be a key factor to improve the characteristics of ITO thin film. Furthermore, an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) thin film with approximately 50 nm thickness was successfully synthesized on glass substrates by using a fully aqueous sol-gel process. The annealing temperature and argon plasma treatment time appear to be key factors in reducing resistivity and increasing the transmittance of the thin film.