Study on mechanical and electro-optical properties of ITO/CeO2 films deposited on PI substrate for flexible organic solar cells

ITO and ITO/CeO2 films with various CeO2 buffer layer thickness were deposited on flexible polyimide substrates by DC and RF magnetron bi-sputtering at 200 °C. The crystallinity of the ITO/CeO2 films increased remarkably with increasing CeO2 thickness from 0 to 7 nm and the ITO/CeO2 films showed a single (2 2 2)-oriented highly preferred structure. The resistivity of the ITO/CeO2 films decreased with increasing CeO2 buffer layer thickness due to the increase in crystallinity. The minimum resistivity of the ITO/CeO2 film, 7 nm in thickness, was 2.84 × 10−4 Ω cm. A relatively small change in resistance in dynamic stress mode was observed for the ITO/CeO2 film with a buffer layer thickness of 3 nm.