Electrical and surface properties of indium tin oxide (ITO) films by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering for organic light emitting diode as anode material

Abstract This study examined the anode material properties of indium tin oxide (ITO) films deposited by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering as well as the device performance in organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). The surface and electrical properties of the deposited ITO films were examined at various substrate temperatures. Increasing the substrate temperature enhanced the electrical properties of all deposited ITO films. The ITO film deposited at 400 °C showed the best properties, such as a low resistivity of 2.03 × 10 − 4  Ω cm and high carrier concentration of 7.95 × 10 20  cm − 3 . X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) of the deposited ITO films revealed a relatively lower surface work function than the commercial ITO (C-ITO) films. The OLED device with an ITO anode film deposited at 400 °C showed excellent brightness of 26,702.13 cd/m 2 at 12.8 V, which was better than that of the OLED with a C-ITO anode.