Titanium dioxide-coated fluorine-doped tin oxide thin films for improving overall photoelectric property

Titanium (Ti) layers were deposited by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering on commercial fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glasses, followed by simultaneous oxidation and annealing treatment in a tubular furnace to prepare titanium dioxide (TiO2)/FTO bilayer films. Large and densely arranged grains were observed on all TiO2/FTO bilayer films. The presence of TiO2 tetragonal rutile phase in the TiO2/FTO bilayer films was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The results of parameter optimization indicated that the TiO2/FTO bilayer film, which was formed by adopting a temperature of 400 °C and an oxygen flow rate of 15 sccm, had the optimal overall photoelectric property with a figure of merit of 2.30 × 10−2 Ω−1, higher than 1.78 × 10−2 Ω−1 for the FTO single-layer film. After coating a 500 nm-thick AZO layer by DC magnetron sputtering on this TiO2/FTO bilayer film, the figure of merit of the trilayer film achieved to a higher figure of merit of 3.12 × 10−2 Ω−1, indicating further improvement of the overall photoelectric property. This work may provide a scientific basis and reference for improving overall photoelectric property of transparent conducting oxide (TCO) films.