Fabrication of Highly Transparent and Conductive Indium–Tin Oxide Thin Films with a High Figure of Merit via Solution Processing

TLDR

Deposition technology of transparent conducting oxide thin films is critical for high‑performance optoelectronic devices, and solution‑based fabrication methods can substantially reduce cost and broaden applicability. The study reports a simple and highly effective solution process to fabricate indium‑tin oxide thin films. This process delivers high uniformity, reproducibility, and scalability. The resulting ITO films exhibit 90.2 % transparency, ρ = 7.2 × 10⁻⁴ Ω·cm, a figure of merit of 1.19 × 10⁻² Ω⁻¹, 30 Ω/sq sheet resistance, and 1.14 nm roughness, matching or exceeding dc sputtering benchmarks and suitable for most practical applications.

Abstract

Deposition technology of transparent conducting oxide (TCO) thin films is critical for high performance of optoelectronic devices. Solution-based fabrication methods can result in substantial cost reduction and enable broad applicability of the TCO thin films. Here we report a simple and highly effective solution process to fabricate indium-tin oxide (ITO) thin films with high uniformity, reproducibility, and scalability. The ITO films are highly transparent (90.2%) and conductive (ρ = 7.2 × 10(-4) Ω·cm) with the highest figure of merit (1.19 × 10(-2) Ω(-1)) among all the solution-processed ITO films reported to date. The high transparency and figure of merit, low sheet resistance (30 Ω/sq), and roughness (1.14 nm) are comparable with the benchmark properties of dc sputtering and can meet the requirements for most practical applications.