Effect of annealing treatment on properties of Ce-doped indium oxide (ICO) transparent conductive oxide films

Ce-doped indium oxide films were prepared by reactive plasma deposition, and the effects of annealing temperature and annealing time on the electrical properties, optical properties, and film structure of the ICO films were investigated. The study found that the annealing treatment was beneficial to improve the crystallinity, the grain size, the transmittance of the films, and to reduce the resistivity of the films. When the ICO films were annealed at 210 °C in air for 50 min, the mobility of 93.3 cm2/V s, a carrier concentration of 2.48 × 1020/cm3, an average transmittance of 86.5%, and the resistivity of 2.6 × 10–4 Ω cm were obtained. The ICO films presented higher carrier mobility and lower carrier concentration than the Sn-doped In2O3 (ITO) films, which are conducive to improving the efficiency of solar cells.