Low-temperature conducting performance of transparent indium tin oxide/antimony tin oxide electrodes

Abstract We fabricated transparent indium tin oxide (ITO)/antimony tin oxide (ATO) electrodes using a combined process of spin-coating of hybrid ITO nanoinks, electrospraying of ATO, and hydrogen (H2) activation carried out at a low annealing temperature of 200 °C. The produced ITO electrode exhibited an enhanced surface densification and phase conversion of In(OH)3 to ITO. As a result, the H2-activated ITO/ATO electrodes exhibited excellent transparent conducting performances with a superior sheet resistance of ~47.5 Ω/□ and a good transmittance of ~85.3% as compared to the ITO and ITO/ATO electrodes. Despite the use of the low annealing temperature, the achieved improvement in the conducting performance could be attributed to the synergistic effect of the enhanced carrier concentration and the Hall mobility related to the improved surface densification achieved with the electrosprayed ATO thin film and reduction of the residual In(OH)3 phase by H2 activation. Therefore, our method can be used as a novel strategy for obtaining high-performance solution-processed transparent conducting oxides at a low annealing temperature of 200 °C for use in various optoelectronic applications.