Post-annealing effect on the optical property of indium tin oxide sputtered films

Photo-engineered optoelectronic properties of indium tin oxide via reactive laser annealing

“…It should be noted that in previous reports on LA of ITO, structural changes have been observed at lower fluences. 16,17,41 The deviation in this work may be due to the change in the thickness of the ITO, the presence of an intermediate SiO2 layer (a thermal barrier for heat dissipation and an optical spacer), and/or the solution process, which were used in the previous reports. 16,17,41 However, we also note that an increased ambient pressure is typically employed to suppress and/or eliminate sample ablation during LA.…”

“…16,17,41 The deviation in this work may be due to the change in the thickness of the ITO, the presence of an intermediate SiO2 layer (a thermal barrier for heat dissipation and an optical spacer), and/or the solution process, which were used in the previous reports. 16,17,41 However, we also note that an increased ambient pressure is typically employed to suppress and/or eliminate sample ablation during LA. 42,43 We conclude that ReLA, up to and including 125 mJcm −2 in either 5% H2 in N2 or 100% O2, is a "low-stress" process and the modifications to the optoelectronic properties induced during ReLA cannot be explained through structural changes.…”

“…ReLA at 125 mJcm −2 appears to cross a critical fluence threshold which leads to an even greater improvement of the film quality (μ min is increased to 90 cm 2 /Vs) alongside an apparent reduction in the "strength" of ICS (α is reduced from 11 to 6 ). These enhancements of the film quality likely arise from either structural and/or compositional modifications, 16,17 to be discussed later. Furthermore, for the films annealed at 125 mJcm −2 , a change in the mobility alone (grey arrow) is not able to explain the post-ReLA transport properties.…”

“…Recent results have demonstrated the ability of laser annealing (LA) to overcome these limitations and offer an ultra-fast, scalable, and low thermal budget post-growth processing technique to enhance the crystallinity of TCOs. [15][16][17] LA operates through the application of a highly spatially and temporally localised energetic heating and offers an increased level of control over the manipulation of material properties. 18 This is achieved via access to an array of LA parameters such as pulse length, frequency, number of pulses, fluence and wavelength in addition to environmental parameters such as pressure and composition.…”

Photo-engineered optoelectronic properties of indium tin oxide via reactive laser annealing

“…However, TA of thin films suffers from long dwell times and high thermal budget, making the process, cumbersome and unable to be utilised for films where the characteristics of the substrate must not be compromised (i.e., flexible electronic devices or manufactured chips with heat-sensitive components). Recent results have demonstrated the ability of laser annealing (LA) to overcome these limitations and offer an ultra-fast, scalable, and low thermal budget post-growth processing technique to enhance the crystallinity of TCOs 15 – 17 . LA operates through the application of a highly spatially and temporally localised energetic heating and offers an increased level of control over the manipulation of material properties 18 .…”