Characteristics of GZO-based multilayer transparent conducting films

Ga-doped ZnO (GZO)/metal/GZO structures were fabricated on glass substrates to be the transparent conducting layers in this study. GZO films and metal films were deposited at room-temperature by a radio-frequency sputter and a thermal evaporator, respectively. The GZO/Ag/GZO (GAG) structures had poor electrical and optical properties due to the formation of Ag islands on the GZO layer. A 1-nm Cu seed layer was deposited on the GZO layer to fabricate the GZO/Ag/Cu/GZO (GACG) structure to improve its electrical and optical properties. The GACG structure had sheet resistance of 9 $\mathrm{\Omega }$, average visible transmittance of 86% and figure of merit of $2.5\times 10^{-2}$${\mathrm{\Omega }}^{-1}$. In addition, the sheet resistance of the GACG structure kept almost the same after annealing at $300^{\circ }$C in atmosphere for more than 5 h, which showed good thermal stability.