Organic light-emitting diode on indium zinc oxide film prepared by ion assisted deposition dc sputtering system

Abstract In this letter, high-quality indium zinc oxide (IZO) films (60–220 nm) were first grown on hardness poly-carbonate substrate by ion-assisted deposition (IAD) dc magnetron sputtering without a post deposition annealing treatment. The electrical, optical, and structural properties of these films were investigated as a function of film thickness. IAD dc magnetron sputtering provides very uniform IZO films with high transparency (⩾85% in 550 nm spectrum) and low electrical resistivity ( 3×10 −4 Ω  cm). The Hall mobility and carrier density for a 120-nm-thick film at 100 W are 12 cm 2 /V s and 2.5×10 21 cm −3 , respectively. The IZO films grown at low temperature by IAD dc magnetron sputtering were used for the organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) as transparent anode. Under a current density of 100 mA/cm 2 , the developed OLEDs show an excellent efficiency (12 V turn-on voltage) and a luminance of 1200 cd/m 2 in average, which is better than that measured with commercial ITO anodes and suitable for the electro-optical application.