Surface Property of Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) After Various Methods of Cleaning

We investigated the surface property change of indium tin oxide (ITO) with the various cleaning methods, using photoemission spectroscopy (PES), work function change and near-edge X-ray adsorption fine structure (NEXAFS). The detergent treatments of ITO with acetone (C₃H₆O), methanol (CH₄O), 2-propanol (C₃H₈O), and deionized (D) water yielded work function shifts as high as 0.99 eV compared to the no-treatment ITO. In contrast, work function shifts of 0.10-0.35 eV were measured after other treatments. The lowest C 1s concentration was obtained after O2 plasma treatment of ITO. There was no big change in the peak position and the shape of $In 3d^{5//2}$, and $Sn 3d^{5//2}$ after each treatment. But C 1s and O 1s spectra shows a peak shift and shape change. Presence of carbon can be minimized by NaOH treatment combined with oxygen plasma. In NEXAFS spectra of C K-edge on each sample, we found two π-binding states whose positions are 284.5 and 287.9 eV, C=C and C=O, respectively.