Date Published:

Abstract:

In this paper, a transparent conductive ITO/Ag/ITO (IAI) multilayer structure with a high Haacke Figure of Merit (FoM) far surpassing those found up to now is experimentally demonstrated. An optimized IAI multilayer electrode was elaborated by means of RF magnetron sputtering technique. The structural and electrical characteristics of the prepared tri-layered design were investigated. The influence of the annealing process on the IAI electrode performance was also carried out. Unlike the IAI structure as-deposited, it was revealed that the annealed samples maintained an average transparency superior than 89%. This behavior indicates the effectiveness of the thermal treatment for ensuring favorable light management. In addition, it was found that the annealing process paves a new path toward improving the electrode conductivity, where the heat treated electrode at 600°C yielded a very low sheet resistance of 2.95Ω × sq-1. Therefore, by well optimizing both IAI geometry and annealing conditions, we were able to elaborate high-quality coating with a superior FoM of 120.8 × 10-3Ω-1. This makes the sputtered IAI multilayer design a suitable alternative to the conventional ITO-based electrodes for optoelectronic and photovoltaic applications.