Issue 19, 2021, Issue in Progress

Patterned few nanometer-thick silver films with high optical transparency and high electrical conductivity

Abstract

Transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) are experimentally demonstrated using patterned few nanometer-thick silver films on zinc oxide-coated rigid and flexible substrates. The grid lines are completely continuous, but only 8.4 nm thick. This is the thinnest metallic grid we are aware of. Owing to the high transparency of both the grid lines and spacing, our TCE with an opening ratio (OR) as small as 36% achieves an average optical transmittance up to ∼90% in the visible regime, breaking the optical limits of both the unpatterned film counterpart and the thick grid counterpart (whose optical transmittance is determined by the OR). The small OR enables a low sheet resistance of ∼21.5 Ω sq−1. The figure of merit up to ∼17 kΩ−1 is superior to those of the unpatterned film counterpart, our fabricated 180 nm thick ITO, as well as most reported thick metal grid TCEs. Our ultrathin TCE, firmly attached to the substrate, is mechanically more flexible and more stable than the film counterpart and ITO. As a flexible transparent film heater, it achieves comparable or even superior heating performances with previously-reported heaters and performs well in a thermochromic test.

Graphical abstract: Patterned few nanometer-thick silver films with high optical transparency and high electrical conductivity

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
21 Jan 2021
Accepted
15 Mar 2021
First published
19 Mar 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2021,11, 11481-11489

Patterned few nanometer-thick silver films with high optical transparency and high electrical conductivity

X. He, Q. Cao, J. Pan, L. Yang and S. He, RSC Adv., 2021, 11, 11481 DOI: 10.1039/D1RA00549A

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