Wavelength-dependent Optical Instability Mechanisms and Decay Kinetics in Amorphous Oxide Thin-Film Devices

We present a study on decay kinetics for a recovery process depending on the light wavelength selected in optical instability measurements against amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O (a-IGZO) thin-film devices. To quantitatively analyze optically-induced instability behaviors, a stretched exponential function (SEF) and its inverse Laplace transform are employed for a time- and energy-dependent analysis, respectively. The analyzed results indicate that a shorter wavelength light activates electrons largely from the valence band while metastable states are deionized with the respective photon energy (hv). In contrast, a longer wavelength illumination is mainly activating trapped electrons at metastable states, e.g. oxygen defects. In particular, at 500 nm wavelength (hv ~ 2.5 eV), it shows an early persistency with a much higher activation energy. This also implies that the majority of metastable states remain ionized, thus the deionization energy >2.5 eV. However, the decay trend at 600 nm wavelength (hv ~ 2 eV) is found to be less persistent and lower current level compared to the case at 500 nm wavelength, suggesting the ionization energy of metastable states >2 eV. Finally, it is deduced that majority of oxygen defects before the illumination reside within the energy range between 2 eV and 2.5 eV from the conduction band edge.