Enhanced electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of Mo-interlayered ZnO multilayer nanofilms for NO sensor

•The ZnO/Mo/ZnO multilayer films with various Mo layer thicknesses are explored.•The roughness of the multilayer film reduced with increasing Mo layer thicknesses.•The multilayer film with a 12-nm Mo layer had a transparency of 79.2%.

This study investigates the structural, optical, electrical, and nanomechanical properties of zinc oxide (ZnO)/Mo/ZnO trilayer films deposited via radio-frequency magnetron sputtering. It was found that sheet resistance, the transparency, the response, and nanoindentation properties of the trilayer films depend on the Mo layer thickness. The best performance as a Mo layer thickness of 12 nm, for which the sheet resistance was 2.55 × 102 Ω/□ at a total transmittance of 79.2% at 395 nm, the response was 42% at 5 ppm NO gas, and the hardness was 6.02 GPa.