Enhanced Work Function of Al-Doped Zinc-Oxide Thin Films by Oxygen Inductively Coupled Plasma Treatment

Al-doped zinc-oxide (AZO) thin films treated by oxygen and chlorine inductively coupled plasma (ICP) were compared. Kelvin probe (KP) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were employed to characterize the effect of treatment. The results of KP measurement show that the surface work function of AZO thin films can increase up to 5.92 eV after oxygen ICP (O-ICP)’s treatment, which means that the work function was increased by at least 1.1 eV. However, after the treatment of chlorine ICP (Cl-ICP), the work function increased to 5.44 eV, and the increment was 0.6 eV. And 10 days later, the work function increment was still 0.4 eV after O-ICP’s treatment, while the work function after Cl-ICP’s treatment came back to the original value only after 48 hours. The XPS results suggested that the O-ICP treatment was more effective than Cl-ICP for enhancing the work function of AZO films, which is well consistent with KP results.