Investigation of material properties and thermal stabilities of magnetron-sputter-deposited ZnO:Al/Ag/ZnO:Al transparent conductive coatings for thin-film solar cell applications

Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) have been widely used in various optoelectronic devices. Among these TCOs, indium–tin oxide (ITO) is the most commonly used TCO material. However, owing to the scarcity of indium, there exists a strong need to replace ITO with an alternative transparent conductive coating. A TCO/metal/TCO-based multilayer structure has been considered as one promising candidate. In this work, several Al-doped ZnO (AZO) AZO/Ag/AZO samples were prepared with different Ag thicknesses. The AZO/Ag/AZO structure allows a low sheet resistance of around 10 Ω/sq and a visible transmission above 80% achieved with an overall thickness of ∼110 nm. The optimisation of front AZO thickness helps to reduce reflection via destructive interferences. We demonstrated that the adhesion strength of the stacks can be improved by modifying top AZO deposition conditions. The adhesive tape test confirms good film adhesion (i.e., peel-off strength) to the glass substrate. The annealing studies confirm good thermal stabilities of the fabricated sandwich structure.