Electrical, optical and structural characteristics of indium-tin-oxide thin films deposited on glass and polymer substrates

Kulkarni, A. K.; Schulz, Kirk H.; Lim, Tae-Young; Khan, Md. Irfan

doi:10.1016/s0040-6090(97)00526-9

Cited by 93 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…On thermal annealing at 250°C for 1.5 h the (2 2 2) reflections coalesced into a single strong (2 2 2) reflection at 30.9°. These observations are consistent with a preferentially oriented (2 2 2) crystalline plane of (tin-doped) indium oxide, In 2 O 3 [34][35][36][37]. ESEM examination of both the annealed and unannealed samples also reveals a polycrystalline film morphology.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 77%

Electrochemical and optical evaluation of noble metal– and carbon–ITO hybrid optically transparent electrodes

Zudans

Paddock

Kuramitz

et al. 2004

Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 77%

Electrochemical and optical evaluation of noble metal– and carbon–ITO hybrid optically transparent electrodes

Zudans

Paddock

Kuramitz

et al. 2004

Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry

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“…For example, simulations by Vora et al showed a 19.65 % increase in short circuit current (J SC ) for nanocylinder patterned solar cell (NCPSC) in which the ITO layer thickness was kept at 10 nm to minimize the parasitic Ohmic losses and simultaneously act as a buffer layer while helping to tune the resonance for maximum absorption [14]. TCOs such as the most established indium tin oxide (ITO), aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) and zinc oxide (ZnO) are standard integral materials in current thin-film solar PV devices [15][16][17][18]. Bulk material properties for common TCOs including ITO have been well researched and documented for different processing conditions and substrates [15,16,[19][20][21][22][23]; however, this is not the case for ultra-thin TCOs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…TCOs such as the most established indium tin oxide (ITO), aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) and zinc oxide (ZnO) are standard integral materials in current thin-film solar PV devices [15][16][17][18]. Bulk material properties for common TCOs including ITO have been well researched and documented for different processing conditions and substrates [15,16,[19][20][21][22][23]; however, this is not the case for ultra-thin TCOs. The few exceptions include Sychkova et al [24], who reported both optical and electrical properties of 9-80 nm ITO films deposited by pulsed DC sputtering varied with thickness and showed a general increase in resistivity with decrease in film thickness [24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limitations of ultra-thin transparent conducting oxides for integration into plasmonic-enhanced thin-film solar photovoltaic devices

Gwamuri

Vora

Khanal

et al. 2015

Mater Renew Sustain Energy

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This study investigates ultra-thin transparent conducting oxides (TCO) of indium tin oxide (ITO), aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) and zinc oxide (ZnO) to determine their viability as candidate materials for use in plasmonic-enhanced thin-film amorphous silicon solar photovoltaic (PV) devices. First a sensitivity analysis of the optical absorption for the intrinsic layer of a nano-disk patterned thin-film amorphous silicon-based solar cell as a function of TCO thickness (10-50 nm) was performed by simulation. These simulation results were then used to guide the design of the experimental work which investigated both optical and electrical properties of ultra-thin (10 nm on average) films simultaneously deposited on both glass and silicon substrates using conventional rf sputtering. The effects of deposition and post-processing parameters on material properties of ITO, AZO and ZnO ultrathin TCOs were probed and the suitability of TCOs for integration into plasmonic-enhanced thin-film solar PV devices was assessed. The results show that ultra-thin TCOs present a number of challenges for use as thin top contacts on plasmonic-enhanced PV devices: (1) optical and electrical parameters differ greatly from those of thicker (bulk) films deposited under the same conditions, (2) the films are delicate due to their thickness, requiring very long annealing times to prevent cracking, and (3) reactive gases require careful monitoring to maintain stoichiometry. The results presented here found a trade-off between conductivity and transparency of the deposited films. Although the sub 50 nm TCO films investigated exhibited desirable optical properties (transmittance greater than 80 %), their resistivity was too high to be considered as materials for the top contact of conventional PV devices. Future work is necessary to improve thin TCO properties, or alternative materials, and geometries are needed in plasmonic-based amorphous silicon solar cells. The stability of ultra-thin TCO films also needs to be experimentally investigated under normal device operating conditions.

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“…The results for ρ are in the same order of magnitude as for the thin films deposited by cathode magnetron sputtering [14]. According to [15], the sheet resistance, R s , of ITO films with thickness 50 − 100 nm is in the range 2 − 6 kΩ/sq. Taking into account that the relation between the real part of the conductivity, σ' and ε" is ,…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 81%

Optical and electrical properties of very thin chromium films for optoelectronic devices

Lozanova¹,

Atanasova²,

Soserov³

et al. 2014

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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Abstract. Establishing the optimal experimental conditions for the development of transparent metal contacts to be used in optoelectronic devices, such as organic light-emitting diodes and solar cells, is an important task. In this paper we present an overview of the development of very thin e-beam-deposited chromium films with high optical transparency. The surface morphology is investigated by scanning electron microscopy. The variation is examined of the films' electrical and optical properties (transmittance and complex refractive index) with the variation of the thickness and deposition rate. We observed that, for a given thickness of the chromium films, the absorption coefficient increases when the deposition rate is decreased. We also found that the thin films with a thickness of less than 10 nm show an average transmittance exceeding 60 % in the spectral range 400 -1500 nm. The films' resistivity, ρ, is determined by the four-point probe method. The value of ρ varies in the range of 10 -3 − 10 −4 Ω cm for chromium coatings in the thickness interval 5 − 100 nm. The results obtained show that very thin metal films could be an alternative to the transparent conductive oxides. IntroductionThin chromium films have found many applications, for example as layers for improvement of the adhesion to transparent substrates [1], in mask production [2] and as transparent electrodes [3]. Recently, it has been demonstrated that the ultrathin transparent metal contacts provide a number of advantages over the more commonly used conductive transparent metal oxides, such as indium tin oxide (ITO) [4]. According to [5], chromium and nickel thin films possess optical transparency comparable to that of the ITO in the visible and near-infrared range (0.4 − 2.5 μm), while it can be significantly higher in the ultraviolet (175 − 400 nm) and mid-infrared (2.5 − 25 μm) regions.The conditions of deposition, as deposition rate, temperature of substrate, etc., influence very strongly the properties of the metal coating [6]. It has been shown that the deposition rate and argon partial pressure in the case of cathode sputtering strongly affect the microstructure and electrical properties of thin chromium films [7,8]. Metal films deposited by ion-beam sputtering display exceptionally low surface roughness, the films being as thin as about 20 Å [3].The goal of the present work is the investigation of the optical and electrical properties of very thin chromium films deposited by an electron-beam technique.

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Electrical, optical and structural characteristics of indium-tin-oxide thin films deposited on glass and polymer substrates

Cited by 93 publications

References 16 publications

Electrochemical and optical evaluation of noble metal– and carbon–ITO hybrid optically transparent electrodes

Electrochemical and optical evaluation of noble metal– and carbon–ITO hybrid optically transparent electrodes

Limitations of ultra-thin transparent conducting oxides for integration into plasmonic-enhanced thin-film solar photovoltaic devices

Optical and electrical properties of very thin chromium films for optoelectronic devices

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