Conductive and transparent multilayer films for low-temperature TiO2/Ag/SiO2 electrodes by E-beam evaporation with IAD

Abstract

Conductive and transparent multilayer thin films consisting of three alternating layers (TiO2/Ag/SiO2, TAS) have been fabricated for applications as transparent conducting oxides. Metal oxide and metal layers were prepared by electron-beam evaporation with ion-assisted deposition, and the optical and electrical properties of the resulting films as well as their energy bounding characteristics and microstructures were carefully investigated. The optical properties of the obtained TAS material were compared with those of well-known transparent metal oxide glasses such as ZnO/Ag/ZnO, TiO2/Ag/TiO2, ZnO/Cu/ZnO, and ZnO/Al/ZnO. The weathering resistance of the TAS film was improved by using a protective SiO2 film as the uppermost layer. The transmittance spectra and sheet resistance of the material were carefully measured and analyzed as a function of the layer thickness. By properly adjusting the thickness of the metal and dielectric films, a low sheet resistance of 6.5 ohm/sq and a high average transmittance of over 89% in the 400 to 700 nm wavelength regions were achieved. We found that the Ag layer played a significant role in determining the optical and electrical properties of this film.

Current Progress of Magnetoresistance Sensors

“…Accurate control of the layer thickness is crucial for the MR values. Various preparation processes have been involved in the construction of multilayer systems including electron beam evaporation, magnetron sputtering, cathodic arc deposition, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), pulsed laser deposition (PLD), and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [55][56][57][58][59][60][61]. These techniques provide precise control on the layer thickness and layer repetitions.…”

Effect of copper nanoparticle addition on the electrical and optical properties of thin films prepared from silver nanoparticles

“…However, in order to be highly transparent for light in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, the Ag film must be very thin, i.e., the film thickness has to be in the order of 10 nm [10]. Some complicated and costly methods have to be adopted such as RF sputtering [11], DC sputtering [12], and electron beam evaporation [13] to obtain thin and uniform Ag film. Different from the sputtering method which needs expensive instrument and high-quality target, the spin-coating method offers advantages in terms of easy and atmospheric operation, simple apparatus, cheapness, etc.…”

Al-doped ZnO/Ag/Al-doped ZnO multilayer films with a high figure of merit

“…Thus, a thin metal film sandwiched between two TCO films, i.e., TCO/metal/TCO (TCO/M/TCO) multilayers, has been widely studied. Ag films have frequently been used as the middle layer for TCO/M/TCO multilayers because of its low resistance and high transmittance in the visible spectrum [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. For example, the electrical and optical properties of SnO 2 /Ag/SnO 2 films prepared on quartz glass substrates were investigated as functions of the Ag-and SnO 2 -layer thicknesses [9].…”