Tuning the Work Function of Polar Zinc Oxide Surfaces using Modified Phosphonic Acid Self‐Assembled Monolayers

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is regarded as a promising alternative material for transparent conductive electrodes in optoelectronic devices. However, ZnO suffers from poor chemical stability. ZnO also has a moderate work function (WF), which results in substantial charge injection barriers into common (organic) semiconductors that constitute the active layer in a device. Controlling and tuning the ZnO WF is therefore necessary but challenging. Here, a variety of phosphonic acid based self‐assembled monolayers (SAMs) deposited on ZnO surfaces are investigated. It is demonstrated that they allow the tuning the WF over a wide range of more than 1.5 eV, thus enabling the use of ZnO as both the hole‐injecting and electron‐injecting contact. The modified ZnO surfaces are characterized using a number of complementary techniques, demonstrating that the preparation protocol yields dense, well‐defined molecular monolayers.