Abstract
Traditional oxide transparent conductive materials are very brittle, resulting in greatly reduced optoelectronic performance under bending. An effective solution is embedding flexible conductive materials, such as Ag or Cu, into the ceramic oxides. Here, AZO/Ag multilayers were deposited on glass and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates by magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The influence of the various layered structures (AZO/Ag/AZO, AZO/Ag/AZO/Ag/AZO, or AZO/Ag/AZO/AZO/Ag/AZO) on the optoelectronic properties of the multilayers was investigated. The results show that the resistivity of AZO thin film with an embedded Ag layer is significantly reduced, especially when the Ag layer is thick enough to become continuous. Additionally, the electrical stability of AZO thin film under bending was greatly enhanced when embedded with a continuous Ag layer. The resistance of AZO/Ag/AZO/Ag/AZO five-layer film remained almost unchanged even as the bending angle reached 172°. The results indicate that a multilayer structure of AZO/Ag films has great potential in flexible electrode applications.
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