Improved optoelectronics properties of ITO-based transparent conductive electrodes with the insertion of Ag/Ni under-layer

ITO-based transparent conductive electrodes (TCE) with Ag/Ni thin metal under-layer were deposited on Si and glass substrates by thermal evaporator and RF magnetron sputtering system. Ceramic ITO with purity of 99.99% and In2O:SnO2 weight ratio of 90:10 was used as a target at room temperature. Post-deposition annealing was performed on the TCE at moderate temperature of 500 degrees C, 600 degrees C and 700 degrees C under N-2 ambient. It was observed that the structural properties, optical transmittance, electrical characteristics and surface morphology were improved significantly after the post-annealing process. Post-annealed ITO/Ag/Ni at 600 degrees C shows the best quality of TCE with figure-of-merit (FOM) of 1.5 x 10(-2) Omega(-1) and high optical transmittance of 83% at 470 nm as well as very low electrical resistivity of 4.3 x 10(-5) Omega-cm. The crystalline quality and surface morphological plays an important role in determining the quality of the TCE multilayer thin films properties. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.