A methodology for the simultaneous modulation of the chemical and physical states of an amorphous TiO x layer surface and its impact on the subsequent deposition of a polycrystalline Ag layer are presented. The smoothened TiO x layer surface comprising chemically altered, oxygen-deficient states serves as a nucleating platform for Ag deposition, facilitating a marked increase (∼75%) in the nucleation number density, which strongly enhances the wettability of ultrathin Ag layers. The physically smoothened TiO x /Ag interface further reduces the optical and electrical losses. When the proposed methodology is applied to TiO x /Ag/ZnO transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs), exceptional TCE properties are yielded owing to the simultaneous improvement in visible transparency and electrical conductivity; specifically, a record-high 0.22 Ω −1 Haacke figure of merit is realized. TCEs are prepared on flexible substrates to verify their applicability as stand-alone flexible transparent heaters and as integrated heaters within electrochromic devices to enhance color-switching reactions.

In this study, we prepared highly thermostable semi-transparent heaters composed of W layers with thicknesses of 1-20 nm, on which a 30 nm-thick ZnO layer was deposited to serve as an anti-oxidation barrier. The optical transmittance and sheet resistance of the heaters could be greatly modulated by varying the W layer thickness. For layer thicknesses up to 10 nm, the initial Joule heating above 100 oC significantly reduced the sheet resistance, by 300% for a 6 nm-thick W layer at a fixed voltage for a duration of 400 s. During the test period, heater current and heating capability continuously increased. In subsequent heater operations, the heaters exhibited highly reproducible heating capability. In contrast, for films thicker than 10 nm, the Joule heating process resulted in only a marginal reduction in sheet resistance, i.e., by 4% for a 20 nm-thick W layer. In order to investigate the sharp dependence of heater characteristics on thickness, we performed x-ray diffraction analyses, which revealed that the films thinner than 10 nm were composed of both the equilibrium low-resistivity α-phase and metastable high-resistivity β-phase, and films thicker than 10 nm contained mostly α-phase. The Joule heating process for the thinner films was found to transform the β-phase into α-phase at temperatures above 100 oC, which resulted in significant improvement in the heating capability of the 6 nm-thick W layer. For films thicker than 10 nm, the W layers contained mostly α-phase and no such transformation-induced effects were observed. Finally, W heaters composed of α-phase exhibited highly thermostable and reproducible heater properties, which make the heaters suitable for applications with semi-transparent heaters.