Influence of annealing atmospheres and synthetic air treatment on solution processed zinc oxide thin film transistors

Abstract

Thin film transistors (TFTs) based on active layers of zinc oxide prepared from a solution process were fabricated under different annealing conditions. The influence of the annealing gas as well as the influence of a subsequent exposure to synthetic air to the device properties is considered. Annealing under N2 or H2 atmosphere leads to a strong negative threshold voltage shift. With respect to known defect states in ZnO, two different donor states are suggested to be responsible for the negative threshold voltage. A subsequent synthetic air treatment causes in general a positive threshold voltage shift. However, transistors annealed under H2 degrade very fast under synthetic air in contrast to transistors annealed under N2. In order to obtain more information about the density of states (DOS) distribution, a transistor model for thin film transistors in the hopping transport regime (Vissenberg model) was utilized. For positive threshold voltages, the DOS distribution is independent from the gas treatment and the threshold voltage within the experimental accuracy. This indicates a shift of the Fermi-level within an exponentially decaying DOS. The change in the charge carrier density is either due to shallow donors or due to a charge transfer with acceptors at the surface. In contrast, for negative threshold voltages, the DOS distribution parameter rises, indicating a flatter DOS distribution. We suggest that the difference is due to the change from accumulation mode to the depletion mode of the device.