Growth and Characteristics of SnO2/Ag/Nb2O5/SiO2/SnO2 Multi layer Film

Transparent conducting films having a hybrid structure of SnO2/Ag/Nb2O5/SiO2/SnO2 were deposited on soda lime glass substrates at room temperature by sequential RF/DC magnetron sputtering method. The physical and optical properties of hybrid multi layered film were systematically investigated as a function of SnO2 layer thickness. In order to estimate the optical characteristics and compare them with experimental results, the simulation program named EMP (Essential Macleod Program) was used. EMP results suggested that the multilayered thin film of SnO2 (45 nm)/Ag (10 nm)/Nb2O5 (10 nm)/SiO2 (10 nm)/SnO2 (30 nm) exhibited high transmittance of 89.7 % at 550 nm, whereas the experimentally measured transmittance showed 85.8 %, somewhat lower than simulation data. XRD patterns revealed that SnO2 multi layered films were found to be amorphous and the surface roughness maintained a relatively small range about 4 nm. Keywords-EMP simulation; transmittance; AES depth profiling; surface roughness