Browsing by Author "Settara, Khaoula"

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    Elaboration and characterization of Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO) based on ZnO:Mn/Ag/ZnO:Mn Multilayers
    (University of August 20th 1955-Skikda, 2025) Settara, Khaoula; Akkari, Hocine
    In this work, our objective is to produce transparent electrodes destined for applications in photovoltaic systems. These electrodes are based on Mn:ZnO/Ag/ZnO:Mn transparent conductive oxide (TCO) multilayers deposited on a glass substrate by the thermal evaporation technique, with the Mn percentage varying from 5 wt.-% to 20 wt.-%. We investigated the effect of Mn doping on the structure and properties of single-layer and multilayer thin films. All the samples are transparent in the visible range and exhibit a hexagonal Wurtzite structure according to the x-ray diffraction (XRD) results. Mn was incorporated without changing the structure. For ZnO and Mn-doped ZnO films, Raman spectroscopy revealed the presence of A 1 (LO) and LVM vibration modes. However, we noticed the absence of LVM mode for the non-doped sample and the appearance of LA + TO combined phonons. The extracted optical parameters using a new approach based on the Dragonfly Algorithm show that the optical bandgap of the films decreases from 3.95 to 3.79 eV. For ZnO/Ag/ZnO and Mn:ZnO/Ag/ZnO:Mn (with 5, 10, 15, and 20 wt.-% Mn), the energy band gap values are 3.8 eV, 3.92 eV, 3.84 eV, 3.83 eV, and 3.82 eV, respectively. The addition of low percentages of Mn enhances the hydrophobic characteristics of the multilayers. In reverse, the contact angle decreases for higher percentages, and the surface becomes more hydrophilic. To better understand the efficiency of our films in optoelectronic applications, we calculated the figure of merit; the layer with the highest achieved value is Mn:ZnO/Ag/Mn:ZnO (20wt.-% Mn). This layer is considered the most suitable choice as a Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO).