Tailored Air Annealing\nStrategy to Promote the Photoelectric\nPerformance of AZO-Based Multilayer Films

We investigated the effects of air annealing on the photoelectric\nperformance of aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO)/Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>/Ag/AZO. Transparent conductive films (TCFs) of AZO (55 nm)/Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> (1.5 nm)/Ag (10 nm)/AZO (55 nm) were deposited\non glass substrates via RF/DC magnetron sputtering at room temperature.\nThe Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> seed layer was proved to promote Ag\nwetting in the multilayers structure. The result shows that the optimum\nannealing condition for the multilayer film was determined as annealing\nfor 30 min at 300 °C. The smooth surface obtained effectively\nreduced the light absorption and scattering, and the Ag layer with\ncontinuous growth and a high degree of crystallization contributed\nto the conductivity. The films exhibited a sheet resistance of 5.80\nΩ/sq, an average transmittance of 93.43% in the 400–800\nnm range, and a figure of merit (FOM) that was enhanced by 26.9% to\n87.3 × 10<sup>–3</sup> Ω<sup>–1</sup> via\nair annealing. Remarkably, this is the highest FOM reported for analogous\nTCFs with an AZO/Ag/AZO configuration. The TCFs of this structure\nprepared by our method have potential applications in photovoltaic\ndevices.