Wafer-scale growth of ITO nanorods by radio frequency magnetron sputtering deposition

We demonstrate synthesis of tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) nanorods on 2-in. glass wafers via radio frequency (rf)-magnetron sputtering deposition. The nanorods possessed a single-crystal structure of bixbyite, grew along the >100< orientation of the cubic unit cell, and were vertically aligned to the substrates. Height and diameter of the nanorods were as large as ∼810 nm and 40-100 nm, respectively. The morphological, structural, compositional, optical, and electrical properties of the ITO nanorods were examined with respect to growth temperature (25-500°C) and growth time (10-60 min). ITO nanorod films synthesized at 500°C exhibited excellent electrical and optical property such as a low sheet resistance (∼41ω) and high transparency in the wavelength range of visible light (i.e., ∼87 transmission at 550 nm). The facile approach to synthesize ITO nanorods at a large scale demonstrated in this work may find various applications including the fabrication of high performance optoelectronic devices.