Fr. Zhu et al., Morphological and electrical properties of indium tin oxide films preparedat a low processing temperature for flexible organic light-emitting devices, MAT SCI E B, 85(2-3), 2001, pp. 114-117
In this work, we report the results of an effort to prepare high-quality in
dium tin oxide (ITO) thin films at a low temperature for flexible organic l
ight-emitting devices (OLED). The ITO films were deposited on 50 mum thin g
lass sheets (Schott D263 borosilicate glass) using an argon-hydrogen mixtur
e by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. The results show that the conduc
tion mechanism of the films is mainly governed by the scattering of the ele
ctrons due to an increased oxygen vacancy and associated ionized impurity s
cattering centers in the films. At the optimal deposition condition, the IT
O thin films with a root-mean-square roughness of 1.13 nm over an area of 3
00 nm x 300 nm, an optical transmission of over 86% in the visible spectrum
, and a resistivity of 4.66 x 10(-4) Omega cm were achieved. The films were
used to fabricate phenyl alkoxyphenyl PPV copolymer-based OLED. A maximum
luminance of 4.8 x 10(4) cd m(-2) and an efficiency of 5.8 cd A(-1) at an o
perating voltage of 7.5 V for the flexible OLEDs were obtained. The electro
luminescence performance of the flexible devices is comparable to the ident
ical devices made using the commercial ITO-coated rigid glass substrates. (
C) 2001 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.