Comparative study on the thickness-dependent properties of ITO and GZO thin films grown on glass and PET substrates

Abstract

The thickness-dependent properties of amorphous Sn-doped In2O3 (ITO) and polycrystalline Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) films grown on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with a polymeric hard coating were compared with those deposited on Corning glass. The film thickness varied from 20 to 1310 nm. The electrical properties of the ITO films on PET were almost similar to those of the ITO films on glass. On the other hand, GZO films showed slightly poorer electrical properties when deposited on PET, but the difference was marginal. The electrical properties of amorphous ITO films were independent of film thickness, but polycrystalline GZO films exhibited monotonicallyimproving behavior with increasing thickness, mainly due to enhanced crystallinity and increased grain size with increasing film thickness. Although the air-referenced transmittance spectra of films on PET were about 2-3% lower than those on glass due to the lower transmittance of PET, the substrate-referenced optical transmittances of films on PET were higher than those on glass, reflecting the somewhat coarse structure of films on PET. Both the ITO and the GZO films on PET with a polymeric hard coating were shown to yield properties comparable to those oof both films on glass.