Performance improvement of TiO2/Ag/TiO2 multilayer transparent conducting electrode films for application on photodetectors

TiO2/Ag/TiO2 (TAT) multilayer transparent conducting electrodes were deposited onto glass substrates by room temperature sputtering. The impact of Ag sputtering current on the film morphology, and the optical and electrical properties were discussed. The increase in the sputtering current led to a more continuous Ag middle layer. As the Ag middle layer became continuous, the TAT electrodes had lower sheet resistance and higher transmittance. In addition, an optimized TAT electrode with a figure of merit of 15.97x10(-2)Omega(-1) was obtained at an Ag thickness of 16 nm and a sputtering current of 0.48 A. Finally, organic photodetectors were also fabricated based on TAT electrodes and the performance is comparable to reference devices with commercially purchased Sn-doped In2O3 (ITO) electrodes.