High Transparent and Conductive TiO2/Ag/TiO2 Multilayer Electrode Films Deposited on Sapphire Substrate

Transparent conducting oxides attract intense interests due to its diverse industrial applications. In this study, we report sapphire substrate-based TiO2/Ag/TiO2 (TAT) multilayer structure of indium-free transparent conductive multilayer coatings. The TAT thin films were deposited at room temperature on sapphire substrates and a rigorous analysis has been presented on the electrical and optical properties of the films as a function of Ag thickness. The optical and electrical properties were mainly controlled by the Ag mid-layer thickness of the TAT tri-layer. The TAT films showed high luminous transmittance similar to 84% at 550 nm along with noteworthy low electrical resistance similar to 3.65 x 10(-5) Omega-cm and sheet resistance of 3.77 Omega/square, which is better are than those of amorphous ITO films and any sapphire-based dielectric/metal/dielectric multilayer stack. The carrier concentration of the films was increased with respect to Ag thickness. We obtained highest Hackke's figure of merit 43.97 x 10(-3) Omega(-1) from the TAT multilayer thin film with a 16 nm thick Ag mid-layer. [GRAPHICS] .