Zirconium-aluminum co-doping on solution-processed indium oxide thin film and deceives measured by a novel nondestructive method

Solution-processed co-doped indium oxide (In2O3) have broad application prospects in the display industry. In this paper, zirconium-aluminium co-doped indium oxide (InxZryAl1-x-yO) thin films and thin film transistors (TFTs) are prepared by the solution method. Doping ratio of Zr-Al is 1:0, 2:1, 1:1, 1:2 and 0:1, respectively, and the total atomic ratio of Zr-Al doping is 10 at.%. A novel nondestructive method, microwave photoconductivity decay (mu-PCD) is used to evaluate the quality of thin films by simply measuring their response under laser irradiation. The result shows that doping Zr-Al can reduce the defects in In2O3 thin films effectively. The addition of Zr can effectively reduce oxygen vacancies, and the addition of Al can inhibit the crystallization of In2O3 thin films. The optimal InxZryAl1-x-yO thin film with minimum defects is obtained with doping ratio of Zr:Al = 2:1. The roughness of thin films is below 0.37 nm, and possess exceptional transmittance (>95%) in the visible range. The optimized TFT exhibits mobility of 2.3 cm(2)mu V-1 mu s(-1), an on/off current ratio of 2.0 x 10(4), a threshold voltage of 2.29 V and a subthreshold swing of 1.61 V mu dec(-1) with doping ratio of Zr:Al = 2:1.

Automated summary

This study prepared Zr-Al co-doped indium oxide thin films and TFTs using the solution method, and evaluated the film quality through microwave photoconductivity decay. It was found that doping Zr-Al can effectively reduce defects in indium oxide thin films.