Praseodymium-doped indium zinc oxide (PrIZO) has been employed as the channel layer of thin-film transistors (TFTs). The TFTs with Pr doping exhibited a remarkable suppression of the light-induced instability. A negligible photo-response and remarkable enhancement in negative gate bias stress under illumination (NBIS) were achieved in the PrIZO-TFTs. Meanwhile, the PrIZO-TFTs showed reasonable characteristics with a high-field-effect mobility of 26.3 cm2/V s, SS value of 0.28 V/decade, and Ion/ Ioff ratio of 108. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, microwave photoconductivity decay, and photoluminescence spectra were employed to analyze the effects of the Pr concentrations on the performance of PrIZO-TFTs. We disclosed that acceptor-like trap states induced by Pr ions might lead to the suppression of photo-induced carrier in conduction band, which is a new strategy for improving illumination stability of amorphous oxide semiconductors. Finally, a prototype of fully transparent AMOLED display was successfully fabricated to demonstrate the potential of Pr-doping TFTs applied in transparent devices.
Keywords: metal oxide; negative bias illumination stress; photo-response; praseodymium doping; thin film transistor.