Stable Indium Tin Oxide with High Mobility.

Abstract

Indium tin oxide (ITO) is widely used in a variety of optoelectronic devices, occupying a huge market share of $1.7 billion. However, traditional preparation methods such as magnetron sputtering limit the further development of ITO in terms of high preparation temperature (>350 °C) and low mobility (∼30 cm2 V-1 s-1). Herein, we develop an adjustable process to obtain high-mobility ITO with both appropriate conductivity and infrared transparency at room temperature by a reactive plasma deposition (RPD) system, which has many significant advantages including low-ion damage, low deposition temperature, large-area deposition, and high throughput. By optimizing the oxygen flow during the RPD process, ITO films with a high mobility of 62.1 cm2 V-1 s-1 and a high average transparency of 89.7% at 800-2500 nm are achieved. Furthermore, the deposited ITO films present a smooth surface with a small roughness of 0.3 nm. The stability of ITO films to heat, humidity, radiation, and alkali environments is also investigated with carrier mobility average changes of 19.3, 4.4, and 4.7%, showcasing strong environmental adaptability. We believe that stable ITO films with high mobility prepared by a low-damage deposition method will be widely used in full spectral optoelectronic applications, such as tandem solar cells, infrared photodetectors, light-emitting diodes, etc.