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

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 degreesC and 45 mTorr of oxygen, exhibit high optical transparency (similar to 87%) in the visible (400-700 nm) with a low electrical resistivity of 7x10(-4) Omega cm. ITO films grown by PLD on PET were used as the anode contact in organic light-emitting devices. A luminous power efficiency of similar to1.6 lm/W was achieved at 100 cd/m(2), slightly higher than that (similar to1.5 lm/W) measured for the control device based on a sputter-deposited ITO on glass. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.