Preparation of an indium zinc oxide–silver–indium zinc oxide multilayer film and its application in organic light-emitting diodes

Abstract

Indium zinc oxide (IZO) is one of the most promising anode materials for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). In the present paper, IZO–Ag–IZO multilayer films were prepared by sputtering and their electrical and optical properties were investigated. The multilayer that consisted of a 30-nm-thick top IZO layer sputtered under Ar, a 14-nm-thick Ag layer, and a 30-nm-thick IZO sputtered under O2 was observed to exhibit the highest figure of merit among the investigated multilayer films because of its low sheet resistance (3.6 Ω/sq) and high transmittance (86.9%). OLEDs fabricated using the developed IZO/Ag/IZO anode exhibited a higher luminance and a greater current density than those fabricated using an anode composed of a single layer of IZO or indium tin oxide. As a result, we observed that the IZO/Ag/IZO multilayer exhibits good electrical and optical properties as a transparent conductive film and is suitable for use as an anode in OLEDs.