@article {4079,
	title = {Effects of high temperature annealing in enhancing the optoelectronic performance of sputtered ITO/Ag/ITO transparent electrodes, ISSN 0749-6036},
	journal = {Superlattices and Microstructures},
	volume = {130},
	year = {2019},
	pages = {361-368},
	abstract = {
	In this paper, a transparent conductive\&nbsp;ITO/Ag/ITO\&nbsp;(IAI) multilayer structure with a high Haacke Figure of Merit (FoM) far surpassing those found up to now is experimentally demonstrated. An optimized\&nbsp;IAI\&nbsp;multilayer electrode was elaborated by means of\&nbsp;RF\&nbsp;magnetron sputtering technique. The structural and electrical characteristics of the prepared tri-layered design were investigated. The influence of the annealing process on the\&nbsp;IAI\&nbsp;electrode performance was also carried out. Unlike the\&nbsp;IAI\&nbsp;structure as-deposited, it was revealed that the annealed samples maintained an average transparency superior than\&nbsp;89\%. This behavior indicates the effectiveness of the thermal treatment for ensuring favorable light management. In addition, it was found that the annealing process paves a new path toward improving the electrode conductivity, where the heat treated electrode at\&nbsp;600{\textdegree}C\&nbsp;yielded a very low sheet resistance of\&nbsp;2.95Ω {\texttimes} sq-1. Therefore, by well optimizing both\&nbsp;IAI\&nbsp;geometry and annealing conditions, we were able to elaborate high-quality coating with a superior\&nbsp;FoM\&nbsp;of\&nbsp;120.8 {\texttimes} 10-3Ω-1. This makes the sputtered\&nbsp;IAI\&nbsp;multilayer design a suitable alternative to the conventional\&nbsp;ITO-based electrodes for optoelectronic and photovoltaic applications.




},
	url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0749603619307608},
	author = {Fay{\c c}al Djeffal and Hichem Ferhati and Benhaya, Abdelhamid and Bendjerad, Adel}
}
