Highly flexible ZnO/Ag/ZnO conducting electrode for organic photonic devices

Abstract

We investigated the electrical, optical and bending characteristics of ZnO (40 nm)/Ag (18.8 nm)/ZnO (40 nm) multilayer film deposited on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate and compared them with those of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) (100 nm thick). The ITO single and ZnO/Ag/ZnO multilayer films gave maximum transmittance of 92.9% and similar to 95% at similar to 530 nm, respectively. For the ITO single and ZnO/Ag/ZnO multilayer films, the carrier concentration was measured to be 1.19 x 10(20) and 6.68 x 1021 cm(-3), respectively and the mobility was 32.06 and 21.06 cm(2)/V s, respectively. The sheet resistance was 175.99 and 4.98 Omega/sq for the ITO single and ZnO/Ag/ZnO multilayer films, respectively. Haacke's figure of merit (FOM) of the ITO single and ZnO/Ag/ZnO multilayer films was calculated to be 2.36 x 10(-3) and 104.5 x 10(-3) Omega(-1). The ZnO/Ag/ZnO multilayer films showed dramatically improved mechanical stability when subjected to bending test. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.