Atmospheric-pressure plasma deposition of indium tin oxide

Indium tin oxide (ITO) films were deposited via atmospheric-pressure plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (APPD) using indium acetylacetonate, indium trifluoroacetylacetonate and tin trifluoroacetylacetonate as metal-organic precursors. A film growth temperature of 300°C gave highly-transparent films with modest conductivity. Post-deposition thermal treatments gave ITO films with resistivities one to two orders of magnitude higher than those available commercially. Compositional analysis revealed a high carbon content and annealing the films in oxygen at 400 C did not affect the C concentration. A decrease in the fluorine content in the films was observed after annealing with and the onset of crystallization was noted via XRD.