Stabilizing of Mechanical Property of Amorphous In−Zn−O Thin Films with Hydrogen Flow

Abstract

Amorphous In−Zn−O thin films were deposited with various hydrogen flow rates using a magnetron sputtering system. With the addition of hydrogen, the mechanical stability of the films was dramatically improved without any degradation of electrical properties and optical transmittance. The average change in the resistance of the sample deposited at a hydrogen flow rate of 0.4% was approximately six times lower than that in the sample deposited without hydrogen. Both, the compressive residual stress and absorption coefficient of the sample, decreased with hydrogen flow, indicating similar trends with the average change in the resistance. The absorption coefficient near 3.1 eV indicated that subgap state defects also decreased with increasing hydrogen flow rates. It was confirmed that the improvement in mechanical stability was derived from the suppression of subgap defects due to the hydrogen impurity. Thus, we demonstrated that hydrogen is a promising candidate for stabilizing the mechanical properties of oxide thin films.

Influence of Sputtering Power on the Electrical Properties of In-Sn-Zn Oxide Thin Films Deposited by High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering

“…Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) have recently received much attention because of several of their advantages, such as high transmittance in the visible light range, good chemical stability, good electrical conductivity, compatibility, and adhesion to typical glass substrates [1][2][3]. Because of their unique and excellent properties, they have been adopted in numerous applications.…”

Hydrogen-driven dramatically improved mechanical properties of amorphized ITO–Ag–ITO thin films

“…The details of the residual stress measuring system was discussed in our previous study. 45 As shown in Fig. 4(a), the average value of resistance changes during the dynamic bending test (5000 cycles), decreases until the hydrogen ow of 0.2%, and then slightly increases with a higher hydrogen ow ratio.…”

“…44 As a result, an OMO structure has a polycrystalline oxide/metal/amorphous oxide structure, and the top crystallized oxide layer is a weak point with low mechanical stability. In our previous work, 45,46 we demonstrated the hydrogen passivation effect on In 2 O 3 -based TCO materials, and that hydrogen plays a crucial role in mechanical stability. The hydrogen in TCOs contributes to mechanical stability with a stabilized amorphous structure and suppression of subgap defects in oxide material, which can release residual stress in thin lms.…”