Influence of annealing temperature in ITO thin films prepared by Thermionic Vacuum Arc (TVA) Technique

In this research work, ITO thin film with 100 nm thickness was produced on a glass slide substrate by using the Thermionic Vacuum Arc (TVA) technique. After the deposition process, ITO thin film was annealed at 300, 400, and 480 °C in O2 ambient for 1 h. The effect of annealing temperatures on the optical, structural, and surface properties of the ITO thin film was investigated. Changes in the annealed ITO thin film characteristics were observed. The XRD results analysis showed a crystallization of the ITO thin films along (222) and (440) diffraction peaks after the annealing process. The band gap energy for the as-deposited ITO thin film was estimated as 3.82 eV, which increased from 3.96 to 4.11 eV for the annealed ITO thin films. The FESEM and AFM images of ITO thin films show a homogenous deposition, smooth, granular, and dense form. The CA mean of the as-deposited and annealed ITO thin films was measured in the range of 88°–33°. The experimental results showed that different annealing temperatures influenced the structural, optical, surface morphology and wettability properties of the ITO thin films.