Influence of RF Magnetron Sputtering Pressure on the Structural, Optical, and Morphological Properties of Indium Tin Oxide Nanocolumns

In the present study, ITO nanocolumn was successfully deposited onto a glass substrate by RF magnetron sputtering. The effect of deposition pressure was investigated. X-ray diffraction analysis indicates that the intensity of the (400) peak orientation is highest at sputtering pressure of 5 mTorr. The results from UV-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy revealed that the optical transmittance above 80 % was obtained from the all samples in the visible range of 400-800 nm. The larger grain size was observed from the top view of field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) image as the sputtering pressure was increase. Dense nanocolumn arrays were obtained from the sample deposited at sputtering pressure of 5 mTorr. The surface roughness were decreased at high sputtering pressure of 10 mTorr was observed from atomic force microscopy (AFM) surface morphology. The electrical properties were obtained using standard two-point probe measurements. The lowest electrical resistivity was determined from the sample that prepared at sputtering pressure of 5 mTorr.