Improved interfacial wetability in Cu/ZnO and its role in ZnO/Cu/ZnO sandwiched transparent electrodes

Oxide/metal/oxide (OMO) and its derivatives are considered as the promising alternatives to achieve high performance transparent electrodes (TEs). The percolation thickness and conductivity of the metal layer are very crucial for the optoelectrical properties of any OMO TE. Here, we report a facile method to promote the initial growth of the metal layer by improving the interfacial wettability between O-M interface. By subsequently combined with high-quality zinc oxide (ZnO) films, ZnO/Cu/ZnO TEs that have not only low sheet resistance (19.3 Ω/sq) but also enhanced thermal stability can be obtained, with a performance of an average transmittance of 84.4% over the visible spectral range of 400–800 nm.