Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A, Vol.28, No.1, 41-47, 2010
Flexible indium zinc oxide/Ag/indium zinc oxide multilayer electrode grown on polyethersulfone substrate by cost-efficient roll-to-roll sputtering for flexible organic photovoltaics
The authors describe the preparation and characteristics of flexible indium zinc oxide (IZO)-Ag-IZO multilayer electrodes grown on flexible polyethersulfone (PES) substrates using a roll-to-roll sputtering system for use in flexible organic photovoltaics. By the continuous roll-to-roll sputtering of the bottom IZO, Ag, and top IZO layers at room temperature, they were able to fabricate a high quality IZO-Ag-IZO multilayer electrode with a sheet resistance of 6.15 epsilon/square, optical transmittance of 87.4%, and figure of merit value of 42.03 x 10(-3) Omega(-1) on the PES substrate. In addition, the IZO-Ag-IZO multilayer electrode exhibited superior flexibility to the roll-to-roll sputter grown single ITO electrode due to the existence of a ductile Ag layer between the IZO layers and stable amorphous structure of the IZO film. Furthermore, the flexible organic solar cells (OSCs) fabricated on the roll-to-roll sputter grown IZO-Ag-IZO electrode showed higher power efficiency (3.51%) than the OSCs fabricated on the roll-to-roll sputter grown single ITO electrode (2.67%). (C) 2010 American Vacuum Society. [DOI: 10.1116/1.3264464]