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  • Review Article
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Metal oxides for optoelectronic applications

Nature Materials volume 15, pages 383–396 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Metal oxides (MOs) are the most abundant materials in the Earth's crust and are ingredients in traditional ceramics. MO semiconductors are strikingly different from conventional inorganic semiconductors such as silicon and III–V compounds with respect to materials design concepts, electronic structure, charge transport mechanisms, defect states, thin-film processing and optoelectronic properties, thereby enabling both conventional and completely new functions. Recently, remarkable advances in MO semiconductors for electronics have been achieved, including the discovery and characterization of new transparent conducting oxides, realization of p-type along with traditional n-type MO semiconductors for transistors, p–n junctions and complementary circuits, formulations for printing MO electronics and, most importantly, commercialization of amorphous oxide semiconductors for flat panel displays. This Review surveys the uniqueness and universality of MOs versus other unconventional electronic materials in terms of materials chemistry and physics, electronic characteristics, thin-film fabrication strategies and selected applications in thin-film transistors, solar cells, diodes and memories.

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Figure 1: Electronic structures of Si and metal oxides.
Figure 2: Vapour-phased metal oxide and thin-film transistor.
Figure 3: Solution-processed metal oxide.
Figure 4: Metal oxide electronics.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Northwestern University Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (NSF MRSEC DMR-1121262), ONR (MURI N00014-11-1-0690), AFOSR (FA 9550-08-1-0331) and Polyera Corp. for support of the Northwestern University research described here.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and the Materials Research Center, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, 60208, Illinois, USA

    Xinge Yu, Tobin J. Marks & Antonio Facchetti

  2. State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, School of Opto-electronic Information, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Chengdu, 610054, China

    Xinge Yu

  3. Polyera Corporation, 8045 Lamon Avenue, Skokie, 60077, Illinois, USA

    Antonio Facchetti

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  1. Xinge Yu
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Correspondence to Tobin J. Marks or Antonio Facchetti.

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Yu, X., Marks, T. & Facchetti, A. Metal oxides for optoelectronic applications. Nature Mater 15, 383–396 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4599

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