Properties of Sn‐doped In2O3 by reactive magnetron sputtering and subsequent annealing

Sn‐doped indium oxide (ITO) films have been prepared on the polyester substrate by reactive magnetron sputtering at different oxygen pressures and subsequent annealing in air at 170 °C. Highly transparent ITO films with a low resistivity of 1.8×10−4 Ω cm have been obtained by annealing suboxide films deposited in a limited range of oxygen flow rate. X‐ray photoemission spectroscopy studies show that the Sn 3d5/2 peak can be resolved into two peaks and the relative intensity of the peak at the higher binding energy increases with an increase of the carrier density in ITO films. This fact suggests that the peak at the higher binding energy corresponds to the Sn donor while that at the lower corresponds to electrically inactive Sn.