Effects of Ar ion beam treatment on properties of roll-to-roll sputtered Sn-doped In2O3 films on colorless polyimide substrate

• Published in: Thin solid films 2014-05, Vol.559, p.27-30
• Main Authors: Shin, Yong-Hee, Kim, Han-Ki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Colorless polyimide; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Deposition by sputtering; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Flexible organic solar cells; Ion beam treatment; Materials science; Mechanical and acoustical properties; Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy; Optical properties and condensed-matter spectroscopy and other interactions of matter with particles and radiation; Optical properties of specific thin films; Optoelectronic devices; Physical properties of thin films, nonelectronic; Physics; Roll-to-roll sputtering; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Sn-doped In2O3; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties)
• ISSN: 0040-6090; 1879-2731
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tsf.2013.11.054

We report on the effects of Ar ion beam treatment on the electrical, optical, and mechanical properties of flexible Sn-doped In2O3 (ITO) films grown on colorless polyimide (CPI) by roll-to-roll (R2R) sputtering. Effective Ar ion beam treatment on ITO films led to the reduction of sheet resistance without degradation of optical transmittance of ITO films even though they were prepared at room temperature. In addition, Ar ion beam treatment resulted in crystallization of the R2R-sputtered ITO films without intentional substrate heating. At optimized conditions, the Ar ion beam treated ITO film showed a sheet resistance of 54.6Ω/square and an optical transmittance of 80.1%. A flexible organic solar cell (FOSC) fabricated with the Ar ion beam treated ITO film exhibited a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.137%, which was higher than that of a FOSC made with untreated ITO film. This indicates that the in-situ Ar ion treatment is a promising method for fabrication of crystalline ITO films on flexible substrates without intentional substrate heating in a R2R sputtering process. •The effect of in-situ Ar ion beam treatment on properties of ITO films was investigated.•We showed the in-situ crystallization method for roll-to-roll sputtered ITO films.•We fabricated flexible organic solar cells with Ar ion beam treated ITO films.