Studying the Effect of Mn Doping on the Electrical and Optical Properties of ZnO/Ag/ZnO Multilayer

In this work, we investigated the effect of Mn doping on the optical and electrical properties of ZnO/Ag/ZnO transparent conductive oxide (TCO) multilayers deposited on a glass substrate using a rapid thermal evaporation technique. The structure and optoelectronic properties were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–Vis spectroscopy, and a Four-point probe. XRD patterns show the existence of five peaks indicating the hexagonal structure of ZnO with lattice parameters: a = 3.27–3.35 Å and c = 5.34–5.47 Å and three peaks of the Ag deposited as the interlayer. It was observed that Mn was incorporated without changing the hexagonal structure of ZnO. The results show an increase in band gap energy from 3.38 to 3.81 eV by doping. Compared to non-doped ZnO thin film multilayers, the sheet resistance decreased from 271.8 to 163.08 Ω. The optimum figure of merit at 4.73 × 10−3 Ω−1 was achieved for Mn doped ZnO multilayers with 77.1% transmission.