Indium tin oxide thin films grown on flexible plastic substrates by pulsed-laser deposition for organic light-emitting diodes

Transparent conducting indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films were grown by puls ed laser deposition (PLD) on flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) subs trates. The structural, electrical, and optical properties of these films w ere investigated as a function of substrate deposition temperature and back ground gas pressure. ITO films (200 nm thick), deposited by PLD on PET at 2 5 degreesC and 45 mTorr of oxygen, exhibit high optical transparency (simil ar to 87%) in the visible (400-700 nm) with a low electrical resistivity of 7x10(-4) Omega cm. ITO films grown by PLD on PET were used as the anode co ntact in organic light-emitting devices. A luminous power efficiency of sim ilar to1.6 lm/W was achieved at 100 cd/m(2), slightly higher than that (sim ilar to1.5 lm/W) measured for the control device based on a sputter-deposit ed ITO on glass. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.