Transparent and conductive electrodes combining AZO and ATO thin films for enhanced light scattering and electrical performance

Abstract Al:ZnO (AZO) and Sb:SnO2 (ATO) thin films have been deposited by DC sputtering on soda lime glass (SLG) substrates. The preparation conditions were adjusted to obtain transparent films with high conductivity for AZO and high texture for ATO. Then, the combination of AZO and ATO thin films has been tested to enhance the optical scattering and the electrical performance. The structure, morphology, optical, and electrical properties have been analyzed for SLG/AZO, SLG/ATO and SLG/ATO/AZO samples. The surface texture has been characterized optically by the haze parameters for transmittance and reflectance (HT and HR), which have been related to the root mean square roughness for each sample. Some increase of the electrical resistance is obtained for the AZO films deposited on rough ATO underlayers as compared with analogous AZO grown directly on the smooth SLG substrate. Nevertheless, ATO/AZO bilayers have allowed to achieve better electrical conductivity than ATO and greater optical scattering than isolated ATO or AZO films. In this way, average haze values of HT = 30% and HR = 72%, together with sheet resistance of 20 Ω/sq. have been obtained by combining 150 nm-thick ATO and 800 nm-thick AZO films.