In this study, functional transparent conducting layers were investigated for Si-based photoelectric applications. Double transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films were deposited on a Si substrate in the sequence of indium tin oxide (ITO) followed by aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO). First, we observed that the conductivity and transparency of AZO dominate the overall performance of the double TCO layers. Secondly, the double layered TCO film (consisting of AZO/ITO) deposited by sputtering was compared to a AZO-only film in terms of their optical and electrical properties. We prepared three different AZO films: ITO:3min/AZO:10min, ITO:5min/AZO:7min, and ITO:7min/AZO:4min. The results show that the optical properties (transmittance, absorbance, and reflection) can be controlled by the film composition. This may provide a significant pathway for the manipulation of the optical and electrical properties of photoelectric devices.

Highly optical transparent photoelectric devices were realized by using a transparent metal-oxide semiconductor heterojunction of p-type NiO and n-type ZnO. A functional template of ITO nanowires (NWs) was applied to this transparent heterojunction device to enlarge the light-reactive surface. The ITO NWs/n-ZnO/p-NiO heterojunction device provided a significant high rectification ratio of 275 with a considerably low reverse saturation current of 0.2 nA. The optical transparency was about 80% for visible wavelengths, however showed an excellent blocking UV light. The nanostructured transparent heterojunction devices were applied for UV photodetectors to show ultra fast photoresponses with a rise time of 8.3 mS and a fall time of 20 ms, respectively. We suggest this transparent and super-performing UV responser can practically applied in transparent electronics and smart window applications.