Luminescence and electrical properties of solution-processed ZnO thin films by adding fluorides and annealing atmosphere

To develop an efficient channel layer for thin film transistors (TFTs), understanding the defect-related luminescence and electrical property is crucial for solution-processed ZnO thin films. Film growth with the fluorides addition, especially using LiF, followed by the oxygen ambient post-annealing leads to decreased defect-related emission as well as enhanced switching property. The saturation mobility and current on/off ratio are 0.31 cm2 V−1 s−1 and 1.04 × 103. Consequently, we can visualize an optimized process condition and characterization method for solution-processed TFT based on the fluorine-doped ZnO film channel layer by considering the overall emission behavior.

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► Systematic study of the fluorides doped solution-processed ZnO thin films via the luminescence and electrical behaviors.
► Defect-related visible emission bands are affected by annealing ambient and fluoride addition.
► Adding lithium fluoride followed by annealing in oxygen ambient leads to a controlled defect density with proper TFT performance.