Effect of silver on structural, optical, and electrical properties of ZnO:Al/Ag/ZnO:Al thin films

Abstract

In this work, thin films with a ZnO:Al/Ag/ZnO:Al multilayer structure were deposited by radio frequency (RF) and pulsed DC sources in a magnetron sputtering system on glass substrates at 50 °C with different deposition times of the Ag layer. The results showed that the thin films' properties improved with increasing the deposition time of the silver metallic interlayer and with thermal treatment at 300 °C for one hour. The highest average transmittance in the visible range was 89 %. The best values of resistivity and conductivity were 10-4 Ω·cm and 103 Ω-1cm-1, respectively. Finally, the XRD patterns showed that with an increase in the Ag layer's deposition time, the plane's peak (111) belonging to the Ag plane was observed.

Optimizing Sputter Deposition Conditions of Silver Thin Films Used in Low-Emissivity Coatings in an In-Line Deposition System

“…Among them, AZO yields particularly favorable results, as it Coatings 2023, 13, 1556 2 of 11 exhibits a good wetting behavior in the silver, and forms more uniform silver layers [23,24]. AZO/Ag/AZO structures have been extensively studied, due to their significance as lowemissivity coatings, for the fabrication of transparent and conductive surfaces with a low sheet resistance [20,[25][26][27][28][29].…”