Preparation and Photoelectric Properties of Patterned Ag Nanoparticles on FTO/Glass Substrate by Laser Etching and Driving Layer Strategy

Abstract

An effective method based on laser etching and driving layer strategy was proposed to prepare patterned Ag nanoparticles (Ag NPs) on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)/glass substrate and thus to enhance the photoelectric properties. This method successively included depositing an aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) driving layer, laser etching, depositing an Ag layer, furnace annealing and laser removal. Different AZO and Ag layer thicknesses were adopted, and the surface morphology, crystal structure and photoelectric properties were investigated. An Ag NPs/FTO/glass sample without an AZO driving layer was prepared for comparison. It was found that furnace annealing of the Ag layer combined with the AZO driving layer, rather than that without the AZO driving layer, was more conducive to generating patterned Ag NPs. Using a 20-nm-thick AZO layer and a 150-nm-thick Ag layer led to the formation of uniformly distributed Ag NPs being aligned along the laser-etched grooves to form a pattern. The as-obtained sample had the best comprehensive photoelectric property with an average transmittance of 79.95%, a sheet resistance of 7.11 Ω/sq and the highest figure of merit of 1.50 × 10−2 Ω−1, confirming the feasibility of the proposed method and providing enlightenment for related researches of transparent conductive oxide-based films.