Optical and electrical investigations of indium oxide thin films prepared by thermal oxidation of indium thin films

Abstract

Indium oxide thin films have been prepared by thermal oxidation of vacuum-deposited indium thin films in air in an open furnace at about 600 K. These indium oxide thin films prepared by thermal oxidation have been examined for optical transparency by measuring their optical absorbance as a function of wavelength. From the optical absorption data, optical band gap and the nature of the forbidden energy gap in the indium oxide thin films have been determined. Electrical conductivity measurements have also been carried out on the above oxide films as a function of temperature during heating and cooling cycles in vacuum. It is found that after the first heating, electrical conductivity increases to a significant extent due to removal of point defect clusters due to annealing which contribute to both carrier generation and scattering. From the thermoelectric power measurements carried out, it has been concluded that electrons are the majority carriers in these indium oxide thin films.

Ozone Sensing Properties of Polycrystalline Indium Oxide Films at Room Temperature

“…A wide range of deposition technologies has been used for the preparation of indium oxide films, such as dc and rf sputtering [6,7], evaporation [8,9], thermal oxidation of indium films [10], pulsed laser deposition [11], atomic layer epitaxy [12], spin coating [13] and the sol-gel method [14]. Sputtering is chosen very often among these techniques due to its high deposition rates, good film properties and process stability.…”

Ceramic thin film thermocouples for SiC-based ceramic matrix composites

“…5, the nearly linear responses for the In 2 O 3 and N:In 2 O 3 thermocouples reflect the low thermocouple resistance relative to the input resistance of the data acquisition system. The activation energy for InO 2 is estimated at 12 meV [28], making the resistance drop from room temperature to 1000°C only 30%. The AlZnO thermocouple, though with a resistance nearly 10 times the input resistance of the data acquisition system, shows a marked increase of thermopower over 700°C.…”

Electrical properties of nonstoichiometric In2O3-xthin films

“…In order to study the oxygen diffusion, a common way to investigate the resistance kinetics via a set of R(t) curves measured at various temperatures [5,6] was chosen. It is worth to note, however, that at high temperatures (T > 650 K) the oxygen in-and outdiffusion for In 2 O 3−x is relatively fast.…”