Specific contact resistance of IGZO thin film transistors with metallic and transparent conductive oxides electrodes and XPS study of the contact/semiconductor interfaces

In this work, the specific contact resistance (ρ_c) between amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (IGZO) semiconductor and different contact electrodes was obtained from thin film transistors (TFTs). Ti/Au (10/100 nm), aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO, 100 nm) and indium tin oxide (ITO, 100 nm) were used as source/drain electrodes to fabricate IGZO TFTs. Chemical states of the contacts/semiconductor interfaces were examined by depth profile X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis to explain the origin of the differences on specific contact resistance. The lowest ρ_c achieved using Ti/Au was related to the formation of a TiO_x interlayer due to oxygen atoms diffusing out from the semiconductor under layer, increasing the carrier concentration of IGZO at the interface and lowering the ρ_c. On the contrary, no interfacial reactions were observed between IGZO and AZO or ITO source/drain. However, IGZO resistivity increased with ITO contacts likely due to oxygen vacancies filling during ITO deposition. This fact seems to be the origin of the high contact resistance between IGZO and ITO, compared to IGZO-AZO and IGZO-Ti/Au interfaces.