Preparation And Electro-optical Properties Of ZnO/Ag/ZnO Multilayers Deposited On Fiber Substrates

ZnO nano-structured film is one of important electro-optical information materials, which has not only high transparence in the visible region, high optical reflectance in the infared region and high electrical conductivity but also much advantages, such as abound resources,non-toxicity, high heat stability and chemical stability etc. And it is hopeful to become the succedaneum of ITO film. The fiber-based substrate preparation of nano-films are soft, bending resistance, foldable, lightweight and easy to carry, less investment and other advantages.It was used to develop electromagnetic textile shielding, and fiber sensors with very broad prospects for development.ZnO/Ag/ZnO multilayer films deposited on PET fiber substrates were prepared by magnetron sputtering. Process parameters of film thickness, sputtering power, pressure of argon and temperature of substrates were studied to influence the appearance, structure and electro-optical properties of the multilayer films. In the meanwhile, the surface morphology of the nano-structured ZnO/Ag/ZnO multilayer films was analyzed by SEM and AFM. The results showed that the density of Ag films became better, uniformity became better as the thickness of films increased to 20nm from 10nm. The surface morphology of the same thickness of Ag films growth on either fiber substrates or ZnO films substrates was different. The uniformity of Ag films growth on ZnO films substrates was better than the uniformity of Ag films growth on fiber substrates, the particle diameters of Ag films were bigger, the uniformity of particles was better. In the same way, the surface morphology of the same thickness of ZnO films growth on either fiber substrates or Ag films substrates was different too. With the increasing of sputtering power, the ZnO film particle diameter was increased and the uniformity of the films was decreased. With the increasing of pressure, the film particle diameter was increased first and then decreased. The sheet resistance was examined by four-probe meter. The results showed that the resistivity became low and the conductive properties became good when the upper and lower two layers of ZnO were maintained the same thickness as the thickness of intermediate silver membrane increased. Conductivity of multilayer films was depended on silver films. The electrical conductivity of multilayer was reduced as the power was increased, but it was deteriorated as pressure increased. The optical transmittance was measured by UV/vis spectrophotometer. With the increasing of the silver thickness, the light transmittance of multilayers in the range of visible was decreased a little, but UV absorption capacity has increased notably. The crystal structure were characterized by X-ray Diffraction(XRD). The results showed that the multilayer films were showed good polycrystallinity. The wear-resisting performance was measured by wear-resisting meter. The results showed that the same thickness of the ZnO thin film and multilayer film wear resistance similar to that of film closely with intensity will not change much.