Sumitomo Metal Mining Company, Ltd.

Hisaki Yada

Yoshiyuki Abe

Kentaro Sogabe

Riichiro Wake

Masakazu Kuwahara

Azusa Oshiro

An oxide evaporation material according to the present invention includes a sintered body containing indium oxide as a main component thereof and cerium with a Ce/In atomic ratio of 0.001 to 0.110. The L* value in the CIE 1976 color space is 62 to 95. The oxide evaporation material with the L* value of 62 to 95 has an optimal oxygen amount. Accordingly, even when a small amount of an oxygen gas is introduced into a film-formation vacuum chamber, a transparent conducting film having a low resistance and a high transmittance in the visible to near-infrared region is formed by vacuum deposition methods. Since the amount of the oxygen gas introduced is small, the difference in composition between the film and the evaporation material is made small. This reduces the variations in composition and characteristics among films formed in large quantities.

Oxide evaporation material, transparent conducting film, and solar cell

Provided are an oxide tablet for vapor deposition (oxide evaporation material), and a vapor-deposited thin film and a solar cell formed using the same. The tablet comprises a sintered body which contains indium oxide as a main component and cerium and which is subjected to no surface grinding after sintering, in which Comp/Comp=0.9 to 1.1, where the content of cerium in a surface layer to a depth of 5 &#x3bc;m from a surface of the sintered body is represented by a Ce/In atomic ratio (Comp), and an average value of the content of cerium in the entire sintered body is represented by a Ce/In atomic ratio (Comp).

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Hisaki Yada