Technique for forming ITO films with a controlled refractive index

A new method for fabricating transparent conducting coatings based on indium-tin oxide (ITO) with a controlled refractive index is proposed. This method implies the successive deposition of material by electron-beam evaporation and magnetron sputtering. Sputtered coatings with different densities (and, correspondingly, different refractive indices) can be obtained by varying the ratio of the mass fractions of material deposited by different methods. As an example, films with effective refractive indices of 1.2, 1.4, and 1.7 in the wavelength range of 440–460 nm are fabricated. Two-layer ITO coatings with controlled refractive indices of the layers are also formed by the proposed method. Thus, multilayer transparent conducting coatings with desired optical parameters can be produced.