Ionization potentials of transparent conductive indium tin oxide films covered with a single layer of fluorine-doped tin oxide nanoparticles grown by spray pyrolysis deposition

Indium tin oxide (ITO) films deposited with single layers of monodispersive fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) nanoparticles of several nanometers in size were grown on glass substrates by intermittent spray pyrolysis deposition using conventional atomizers. These films have significantly higher ionization potentials than the bare ITO and FTO films grown using the same technique. The ITO films covered with FTO particles of 7 nm in average size show an ionization potential of 5.01 eV, as compared with ∼4.76 and ∼4.64 eV in ITO and FTO films, respectively, which decreases as the FTO particle size increases. The ionization potentials are practically invariant against oxidation and reduction treatments, promising a wide application of the films to transparent conducting oxide electrodes in organic electroluminescent devices and light-emitting devices of high efficiencies.