Design and fabrication of nanometric ZnS/Ag/MoO3 transparent conductive electrode and investigating the effect of annealing process on its characteristics

In this paper, a ZnS/Ag/MoO3 (ZAM) nano-multilayer structure is designed theoretically and optimum thicknesses of each layer are calculated. ZnS/Ag/MoO3 multilayer films with optimized thicknesses have also been fabricated on glass substrates by thermal evaporation method at room temperature. The structural, electrical and optical properties of ZnS/Ag/MoO3 multilayer are investigated with respect to the variation of annealing temperature. X-ray diffraction patterns show that increase in annealing temperature increases the crystallinity of the structures. High-quality multilayer films with the sheet resistance of 4.5 Ω/sq and the maximum optical transmittance of 85% at 100 °C annealing temperature are obtained. The allowed direct band gap for annealing at different temperatures is estimated to be in the range of 3.37–3.79 eV. The performance of the ZAM multilayer films are evaluated using a predefined figure of merit. These multilayer films can be used as transparent conductive electrodes in optoelectronic devices such as solar cells and organic light emitting diodes.