Because of their unique photoelectrical properties, they play an important role in optoelectronic devices, such as flat displays, thin-film transistors, solar cells, and so on [1–6]. It is well known that transmissive LCD has low contrast ratio in bright light and high power consumption. Reflective LCD has low contrast ratio in weak light, and most of them belong to monochromatic LCD. However, transflective LCD possesses high contrast ratio in bright and weak light
as well as low power buy BKM120 consumption. Ag is a noble metal with excellent photoelectrical properties. In addition to good conductivity, it has high reflectivity in the visible range and good chemical stability. Thus, Ag/ITO composite material is the optimizing
material to make new transflective LCD. Miedziński reported the electrical properties of Ag/ITO composite films [7]. Choi fabricated ITO/Ag/ITO multilayer films and obtained a high-quality transparent electrode which has a resistance as low as 4 Ω/ϒ and a high optical transmittance of 90% at 550 nm [8]. Bertran prepared Ag/ITO films with a high transmittance (near 80%) in the visible range by RF sputtering and studied their application as transparent electrodes in large-area electrochromic find more devices [9]. Guillén prepared ITO/Ag/ITO multilayer films with visible transmittance above 90% by sputtering at room temperature and investigated the optical and electrical characteristics of single-layer and multilayer structures. Besides, the transmittance is found to be mainly dependent on the thickness of Ag film [10]. Although much work has paid more attention on selleck products the investigation of Ag/ITO/Ag multilayer
films, few studies have been carried out to study their photoelectrical properties. In this study, Ag/ITO/Ag multilayer films with various surface layer thicknesses have been prepared on a glass substrate by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering. The microstructure and optoelectronic properties of the Ag/ITO/Ag films were investigated Cediranib (AZD2171) using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis). Methods The multilayer films were prepared by an ultrahigh vacuum multifunctional magnetron sputtering equipment (JGP560I, SKY Technology Development Co., Ltd, Shenyang, China). The multilayer films with a sandwich structure were deposited on glass substrates. The Ag layers were deposited by DC magnetron sputtering with a power density of 1.73 W/cm2, while the ITO coatings were deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering with a power density of 2.12 W/cm2. Ceramic ITO targets of In2O3:SnO2 disk (90:10 wt.%, 4N) and an Ag metal target (4N) were used for ITO and Ag layer deposition separately. The target-to-substrate distance was 60 mm. The base vacuum was 6.0×10-4 Pa, and the deposition pressure was 1.0 Pa with an argon (4N) flow rate of 45 sccm.