The controllable deposition of large area roll-to-roll sputtered ito thin films for photovoltaic applications

Abstract

In the present study, using a large area roll-to-roll DC magnetron sputtering system deposition of ITO thin films on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates were achieved. In order to investigate the effect of growth conditions on the film properties all through the deposition process, optical emission spectroscopy (OES) analysis have been accomplished in a governable way. The consequences of Oxygen partial pressure and film thickness on electrical, and optical properties of the films were determined. It was shown that the intensity of optical emission peaks are subjected to the discharge power and as well as the O-2/Ar flow ratio. Large area, uniform ITO films with relatively high transparency and low electrical resistivity (R(2)(<)50 Omega/sqr) were succesfully deposited on PET substrates. The significance of both the figure of merit (FOM) and the optical band gap values on the performance of different TCO thin films were addressed. In this work, the obtained results suggest that the overall performance is sufficient to implement the ITO films in photovoltaic and OLED applications. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.