Metal Nanostructure Embedded ITO Deposition and Modified Top Transparent Electrode for Emerging Thin-Film Photovoltaics

The conventional structure of transparent devices is finished with metal oxide as a sputtering damage protection layer and top electrode in general Indium doped tin oxide (ITO). The geometry is designed and investigated considering the inverted solar cell structure (PIN). The work considered is to modify this oxide-electrode junction with the insertion of ultrathin metal in between tin oxide and ITO. In this study, we investigated the effect of process temperature and different metal insertions on the performance of SnO₂/metal (Al/Au/Ag)/ITO (SMI) multilayer film. The damage protection layer SnO₂ is prepared by atomic layer deposition. The thermal evaporation system evaporated the metal. The top ITO layer is deposited by RF magnetron sputtering system at different temperatures (25°C, 50°C, and 100°C). Transparent tin oxide SnO₂/metal (Al/Au/Ag)/ITO (Hybrid) multilayer electrodes have been prepared on conventional soda-lime glass substrates. The thickness of SnO₂, M (Al/Au/Ag), and ITO metal films in the multilayered structure was constant at 10, 1, and 200 nm, respectively. The hybrid multilayer electrode films' structural, electrical, and optical properties are investigated. The variation of transmittance and sheet resistance values are dependent on the intermediate metal layers (Al/Ag/Au) and can be tuned accordingly. These hybrid films show a very high average transmittance of >75% in 300 to 1200 nm and roughness below or average 3 nm. With the observation, we can state that we can tune the electrode properties such as transparency in a particular wavelength and control the electrical conduction by controlling the mobility and carrier number.