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

TLDR

Transparent conducting indium tin oxide thin films were deposited by pulsed‑laser deposition on flexible PET substrates, and their structural, electrical, and optical properties were characterized as functions of substrate temperature and background gas pressure, with the resulting films later serving as anode contacts in organic light‑emitting devices. The 200‑nm ITO films deposited at 25 °C and 45 mTorr O₂ exhibited ~87 % visible‑range transparency and 7 × 10⁻⁴ Ω cm resistivity, and when used as OLED anodes yielded a luminous power efficiency of ~1.6 lm W⁻¹ at 100 cd m⁻², slightly surpassing the control device based on sputtered ITO on glass.

Abstract

Transparent conducting indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates. The structural, electrical, and optical properties of these films were investigated as a function of substrate deposition temperature and background gas pressure. ITO films (200 nm thick), deposited by PLD on PET at 25 °C and 45 mTorr of oxygen, exhibit high optical transparency (∼87%) in the visible (400–700 nm) with a low electrical resistivity of 7×10−4 Ω cm. ITO films grown by PLD on PET were used as the anode contact in organic light-emitting devices. A luminous power efficiency of ∼1.6 lm/W was achieved at 100 cd/m2, slightly higher than that (∼1.5 lm/W) measured for the control device based on a sputter-deposited ITO on glass.