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Structural dynamics in thermal-treatment of amorphous indium-oxide films

Thermally-treating amorphous indium-oxide films is used in various basic studies as a means of tuning the system disorder. In this process the resistance of a given sample decreases while its amorphous structure and chemical composition is preserved. The main effect of the process is an increase in the system density which in turn leads to improved interatomic overlap which is easily detected as improved conductivity. A similar effect has been observed in studies of other amorphous systems that were subjected to pressure. In the current work we show that the Raman spectra of amorphous indium-oxide change in response to thermal-treatment in a similar way as in pressure experiments performed on other disordered and amorphous systems. We present a study of how thermal-treatment changes the system dynamics by monitoring the resistance versus time of indium-oxide films following various stages of thermal-treatment. The time dependence of the sample resistance fits the stretched exponential law with parameters that change systematically with further annealing. Implication of these results to slow dynamics phenomena that are governed by the Kohlrausch's law are discussed.