Low temperature and self catalytic growth of ultrafine ITO nanowires by electron beam evaporation method and their optical and electrical properties

摘要

We report the self catalytic growth of Sn-doped indium oxide (ITO) nanowires (NWs) over a large area glass and silicon substrates by electron beam evaporation method at low substrate temperatures of 250-400 C. The ITO NWs growth was carried out without using an additional reactive oxygen gas and a metal catalyst particle. Ultrafine diameter (～10-15 nm) and micron long ITO NWs growth was observed in a temperature window of 300-400℃. Transmission electron microscope studies confirmed single crystalline nature of the NWs and energy dispersive spectroscopy studies on the NWs confirmed that the NWs growth proceeds via self catalytic vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth mechanism. ITO nanowire films grown on glass substrates at a substrate temperature of 300-400 C have shown ～2-6% reflection and ～70-85% transmission in the visible region. Effect of deposition parameters was systematically investigated. The large area growth of ITO nanowire films would find potential applications in the optoelectronic devices.