Mechanism of chlorine treatment in the resistivity stabilization of high-performance AZO/i-ZnO composite transparent conductive layer

Abstract In this study, we fabricated an Al-doped ZnO/intrinsic ZnO (AZO/i-ZnO) bilayer film using a radio frequency generator coupled with a direct current voltage bias. An 800-nm AZO/50 nm i-ZnO transparent conductive oxide layer with a resistivity of 2.58 × 10-4 Ω cm and a sheet resistance of 3.22 Ω/□ was fabricated using this method. The resistivity of the AZO/i-ZnO layer remained unchanged even after 1 h of Cl treatment at 400 °C. The layer showed an average light transmission rate of 85% over the wavelength range of 400–800 nm. The material, optical, and electric properties of the AZO/i-ZnO layer were investigated. The mechanism underlying the Cl treatment resistance of the AZO/i-ZnO layer was also investigated.