Regulation of precursor solution concentration for In-Zn oxide thin film transistors

The tunable electronic performance of the solution-processed semiconductor metal oxide is of great significance for the printing electronics. In current work, transparent thin-film transistors (TFTs) with indium-zinc oxide (IZO) were fabricated as active layer by a simple eco-friendly aqueous route. The aqueous precursor solution is composed of water without any other organic additives and the IZO films are amorphous revealed by the X-ray diffraction (XRD). With systematic studies of atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) and the semiconductor property characterizations, it was revealed that the electrical performance of the IZO TFTs is dependent on the concentration of precursor solution. As well, the optimum preparation process was obtained. The concentrations induced the regulation of the electronic performance was clearly demonstrated with a proposed mechanism. The results are expected to be beneficial for development of solution-processed metal oxide TFTs.