In situ monitoring of pulsed laser indium-tin-oxide film deposition by optical emission spectroscopy

We performed optical emission spectroscopy to monitor the plasma produced during the ablation of indium-tin-oxide targets under different oxygen pressure conditions using a pulsed UV laser. Molecular bands of InO were identified in the fluorescent spectra produced by pulsed laser ablation. InO line monitoring allowed obtaining the optimal conditions for good-quality ITO film deposition. We demonstrated that it is possible to correlate InO line spectroscopic parameters with the conditions required to fabricate a high-conductivity and high-transparent ITO thin film. In particular, low resistivity (10-4 to 10-3 Ω cm) was obtained in films deposited at room temperature by regulating oxygen pressure into the chamber in order to keep the InO line amplitude at a predetermined value. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.