Room temperature processed high mobility W-doped InO electrodes coated via in-line arc plasma ion plating for flexible OLEDs and quantum dots LEDs.

We fabricated W-doped InO (IWO) films at room temperature on a flexible PET substrate using an in-line arc plasma ion plating system for application as flexible transparent conducting electrodes (FTCEs) in flexible organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and quantum dots light emitting diodes (QDLEDs). Due to the high-energy flux of the sublimated ions generated from the plasma region, the IWO films showed a well-developed crystalline structure with a low sheet resistance of 36.39 Ohm/square and an optical transmittance of 94.6% even though they were prepared at room temperature. The low sheet resistance of the IWO film processed at room temperature is attributed to the high mobility (59 cm/V-s) in the well-developed crystalline structure of the ion-plated IWO film and screening effect of W dopants. In addition, the better adhesion of the ion-plated IWO film on the PET substrate led to small critical outer and inner bending radii of 6 and 3 mm, respectively, against substrate bending. Due to the low sheet resistance, high optical transmittance, better crystallinity, better adhesion, and outstanding flexibility of the ion-plated IWO films, the flexible OLEDs and QDLEDs with the IWO electrodes showed better performances than flexible OLEDs and QDLEDs with sputtered flexible ITO anodes. This indicates that in-line arc plasma ion plating is a promising large area coating technique to realize room temperature processed high-quality FTCEs for flexible OLEDs and QDLEDs.