Environmental stability of high-mobility indium-oxide based transparent electrodes
Thanaporn Tohsophon,
Ali Dabirian,
Stefaan De Wolf,
Monica Morales-Masis,
Christophe Ballif
Affiliations
Thanaporn Tohsophon
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratory, Rue de la Maladière 71b, Neuchatel 2002, Switzerland
Ali Dabirian
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratory, Rue de la Maladière 71b, Neuchatel 2002, Switzerland
Stefaan De Wolf
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratory, Rue de la Maladière 71b, Neuchatel 2002, Switzerland
Monica Morales-Masis
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratory, Rue de la Maladière 71b, Neuchatel 2002, Switzerland
Christophe Ballif
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratory, Rue de la Maladière 71b, Neuchatel 2002, Switzerland
Large-scale deployment of a wide range of optoelectronic devices, including solar cells, critically depends on the long-term stability of their front electrodes. Here, we investigate the performance of Sn-doped In2O3 (ITO), H-doped In2O3 (IO:H), and Zn-doped In2O3 (IZO) electrodes under damp heat (DH) conditions (85 °C, 85% relative humidity). ITO, IO:H capped with ITO, and IZO show high stability with only 3%, 9%, and 13% sheet resistance (Rs) degradation after 1000 h of DH, respectively. For uncapped IO:H, we find a 75% Rs degradation, due to losses in electron Hall mobility (μHall). We propose that this degradation results from chemisorbed OH- or H2O-related species in the film, which is confirmed by thermal desorption spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. While μHall strongly degrades during DH, the optical mobility (μoptical) remains unchanged, indicating that the degradation mainly occurs at grain boundaries.
