Comprehensive effect on the development of multifunctional low emissive and transparent conductive amorphous-SIZO/Ag/amorphous-SIZO multilayer structure

Abstract

Wide band gap oxide semiconductors based on transparent conducting electrodes (TCEs) are promising for the fabrication of a wide range of electronic and optoelectronic devices, which include flat panel displays, photovoltaics, transparent heaters, and smart windows. High optical transmittance in the visible spectral range and low electrical resistivity as obtained by intrinsic and/or extrinsic doping, lead to a high figure of merit (FoM) for oxide based TCEs. Recently, we have used wide band gap amorphous Si–In–Zn–O (SIZO) to realize a relatively new class of TCEs using SIZO/Ag/SIZO multilayer structures, which exhibit high FoM in addition to infrared reflection capability due to the embedded ultrathin Ag metal layer. These multifunctional TCEs are found to be highly useful for low emissive smart window applications, which minimize the outside infrared to coming inside and efficiently reflect inside heat to emit outside. In addition, amorphous OMO based TCEs show excellent mechanical endurance, unlike crystalline ITO based coatings. The optical and low emission characteristics of amorphous SIZO OMO were optimized to transmittance of 93.4 % at 550 nm and 58.6 % at 950 nm.