Oxide/metal/oxide electrodes for solar cell applications

Abstract In this paper the influence of the heat treatment on the structural and optical properties of oxide single-layer and multilayer transparent thin film structures of ITO/Au/ITO, AZO/Au/AZO, TiO 2 /Au/TiO 2 and Bi 2 O 3 /Au/Bi 2 O 3 type is studied. The single-layer oxides and respective multilayer structures have been deposited on glass substrates by successive DC magnetron sputtering using metallic targets In:Sn, Zn:Al, Ti and Bi, in reactive (for the oxide films) or inert (for the metallic Au interlayer films) atmosphere. Good quality transparent conducting thin film structures have been obtained, with resistivity ∼10 −4  Ω cm and transmittance ∼75%. The wetting surface properties in function of time exposure at UV radiation (254 nm) have been also studied before and after heat treatment performed at 450 °C.