Abstract
We investigated the effects of gallium (Ga) and tin (Sn) compositions on the structural and chemical properties of Ga–Sn-mixed (Ga:Sn) oxide films and the electrical properties of Ga:Sn oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs). The thermogravimetric analysis results indicate that solution-processed oxide films can be produced via thermal annealing at 500 °C. The oxygen deficiency ratio in the Ga:Sn oxide film increased from 0.18 (Ga oxide) and 0.30 (Sn oxide) to 0.36, while the X-ray diffraction peaks corresponding to Sn oxide significantly reduced. The Ga:Sn oxide film exhibited smaller grains compared to the nanocrystalline Sn oxide film, while the Ga oxide film exhibited an amorphous morphology. We found that the electrical properties of TFTs significantly improve by mixing Ga and Sn. Here, the optimum weight ratio of the constituents in the mixture of Ga and Sn precursor sols was determined to be 1.0:0.9 (Ga precursor sol:Sn precursor sol) for application in the solution-processed Ga:Sn oxide TFTs. In addition, when the Ga(1.0):Sn(0.9) oxide film was thermally annealed at 900 °C, the field-effect mobility of the TFT was notably enhanced from 0.02 to 1.03 cm2/Vs. Therefore, the mixing concentration ratio and annealing temperature are crucial for the chemical and morphological properties of solution-processed Ga:Sn oxide films and for the TFT performance.
Highlights
Over the past few decades, metal-oxide semiconductors have attracted considerable attention owing to their thermal stability, wide band gap, high transmittance in visible light, and high electrical conductivity [1,2]
It was confirmed that the Ga oxide, Sn oxide, and Ga:Sn oxide thin films were successfully formed in this study
We investigated the effects of Ga and Sn compositions on the structural and chemical properties of Ga:Sn oxide films and the electrical properties of Ga:Sn oxide thin-film transistors (TFTs)
Summary
Over the past few decades, metal-oxide semiconductors have attracted considerable attention owing to their thermal stability, wide band gap, high transmittance in visible light, and high electrical conductivity [1,2]. To optimize the performance of metal-oxide-based TFTs, ternary and multicomponent oxides have been used as functional semiconductor layers, such as indium–zinc oxide, zinc–tin oxide, and indium–gallium–zinc oxide [8,9,10,11]. Ga:Sn oxide materials have not yet been studied for application in TFTs. Tin oxide-based thin films can be prepared using various methods such as spray pyrolysis, sol-gel method, molecular beam epitaxy, plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition, metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), and direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering. Dang et al [15] prepared Ga–Sn-mixed oxide thin films using MOCVD and DC magnetron sputtering methods, respectively. They reported that the carrier concentration was higher than 1018 cm−3. Experimental results demonstrate the significant impact of the material composition and thermal annealing temperature of Ga:Sn oxide semiconductor films on the TFT performance
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