Preparation and investigation of nano-thick BaSnO3/Cu/BaSnO3 multilayer structures for transparent electrodes

The nano-thick BaSnO3/Cu/BaSnO3 multilayer structures have been designed and deposited onto glass substrates by magnetron sputtering at room temperature to develop an indium free transparent composite electrode. The effects of Cu mid–layer on structural, electrical and optical properties of BaSnO3/Cu/BaSnO3 multilayer composite structures were investigated. As the Cu layer thickness increases, the resistivity decreases. The lowest resistivity value of 7.9×10−5Ωcm with a carrier concentration of 1.2×1022cm−3 was obtained in the Cu layer with optimum thickness (9nm). The multilayer film has been optimized to obtain an average optical transmittance of ~81% in the visible range of wavelengths, while the figure of merit (FOM) reached a maximum of 14.6×10−3Ω−1.