Effect of substrate on structural and optical properties of In₂O₃ thin films prepared by electron beam evaporation

High purity Indium oxide pellets were used to prepare In₂O₃ thin films using e-beam evaporation. Ultrasonically cleaned substrates were used for the deposition of In₂O₃ thin films. The films were deposited at a substrate temperature of 673 K under 3x10^-5 mbar vacuum. The crystallinity of the films was investigated using GIXRD. The films were found to be polycrystalline in nature and crystallizes in a cubic structure with preferred (2 2 2) orientation. The surface morphology, thickness and compositional analysis were investigated for these films using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS). Thickness of the films was found to be 120 nm. Optical transmission measurements were carried out on In₂O₃ thin films using UV-VIS spectrophotometer in the wavelength range 300 nm -1000 nm and it was confirmed that these thin films exhibits good transparency with an average transparency (90%) in visible region. The optical band gap was estimated from the optical transmission data. The optical constants like band gap and other parameters were calculated from the optical absorption data. These films were found to be promising materials for TCO applications. (author)