Metallic conductivity and the role of copper in ZnO/Cu/ZnO thin films for flexible electronics

K. Sivaramakrishnan, Terry Alford

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

139 Scopus citations

Abstract

ZnO/Cu/ZnO multilayer structures are obtained with the highest conductivity of dielectric-metal-dielectric films reported in literature with a carrier concentration of 1.2× 1022 cm-3 and resistivity of 6.9× 10-5 Ω-cm at the optimum copper layer thickness. The peak transmittance, photopic averaged transmittance, and Haacke figure of merit are 88%, 75%, and 8.7× 10-3 Ω-1, respectively. The conduction mechanism involves metal to oxide carrier injection prior to the formation of a continuous metal conduction pathway. Optical transmission is elucidated in terms of copper's absorption due to d -band to Fermi surface transitions at short wavelengths and reflectance combined with scattering losses at long wavelengths.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number052104
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume94
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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