In-situ Crystallization and Morphological Evolution in Multicomponent Indium Oxide Thin Films

Among all Transparent conducting oxides (TCO), Zinc-Indium-Tin Oxides (ZITO) are known for their good chemical stability, smooth surfaces and most importantly, high electrical conductivity. Having access to fundamental information like kinetics parameters is extremely important for processing and fabrication of these materials.

A comprehensive kinetics study of a-ZITO-30 crystallization in ultra thin films has been conducted via in-situ TEM isothermal experiments, in order to investigate the nucleation and growth phenomena during the crystallization process.

• The results show that the nucleation rate in this system is time dependent and continuously decelerates following power law decay, which implies logarithmic structural relaxation in a-ZITO-30.
• A morphological study of the grains shows that the {100} planes have the lowest interface mobility and are responsible for the anisotropic crystal shapes.
• It is also found that during the nucleation process the {111} and {100} planes are most likely to site parallel to the film-vapor interface.

Crys. Growth & Des. (2017) In press.