Design and fabrication of nanometric ZnS/Ag/MoO3 transparent conductive electrode and investigating the effect of annealing process on its characteristics

Abstract

In this paper, a ZnS/Ag/MoO3 (ZAM) nano-multilayer structure is designed theoretically and optimum thicknesses of each layer are calculated. ZnS/Ag/MoO3 multilayer films with optimized thicknesses have also been fabricated on glass substrates by thermal evaporation method at room temperature. The structural, electrical and optical properties of ZnS/Ag/MoO3 multilayer are investigated with respect to the variation of annealing temperature. X-ray diffraction patterns show that increase in annealing temperature increases the crystallinity of the structures. High-quality multilayer films with the sheet resistance of 4.5 Ω/sq and the maximum optical transmittance of 85% at 100 1C annealing temperature are obtained. The allowed direct band gap for annealing at different temperatures is estimated to be in the range of 3.37-3.79 eV. The performance of the ZAM multilayer films are evaluated using a predefined figure of merit. These multilayer films can be used as transparent conductive electrodes in optoelectronic devices such as solar cells and organic light emitting diodes. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.