Thin Solid Films, Vol.558, 31-36, 2014
Transparent and conductive titanium indium zinc oxide/Ag/titanium indium zinc oxide multilayer films deposited by radio frequency magnetron co-sputtering
Multilayer transparent films with lower electrical resistance than the widely used transparent conductive electrodes, were prepared at room temperature on flexible PES [poly(ether sulfone)] substrates using an RF-magnetron co-sputtering system. The multilayered films consisted of three layers, titanium indium zinc oxide (TIZO)/Ag/TIZO. The optical and electrical properties of the multilayered TIZO/Ag/TIZO structure were investigated in relation to the thickness of each layer. A transparent and conductive film with a sheet resistance of 7.7 Omega/square and an average transmittance of 92% (normalized to the flexible PES substrate) at 550 nm, was obtained at thicknesses of PES/TIZO(100 nm)/Ag(10 nm)/TIZO(40 nm). The surface roughness (root mean square, RMS) values of the obtained multilayer films were below 1 nm. Overall, the properties of the film were comparable or superior to those of other multilayer films such as indium tin oxide (ITO)/Ag//ITO, indium zinc oxide (IZO)/Ag/IZO, and indium zinc tin oxide (IZTO)/Ag/IZTO. For this reason, the new TIZO/Ag/TIZO multilayer film may serve as a viable, high-efficiency alternative for electrode applications in flexible photovoltaic cells. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.