A rapid two-step metallization for fabrication of a "black" transparent conductive film on a flexible substrate for display applications is presented, using a mixture of silver oxide (Ag2O) and silver neodecanoate (C10H19AgO2), and its electrical conductivity and colour transition behaviours are investigated. Silver nanoparticles, which are physicochemically converted from silver oxide microparticles in the presence of silver neodecanoate in the course of the first metallization step at 150 °C for 10 min, are chemically annealed by immersing them in an acidic ferric chloride (FeCl3) solution at room temperature for 10 s. During this second metallization step, silver nanoparticles are found to be tightly packed through Ostwald ripening, which eventually leads to the dramatic enhancement of electrical conductivity by six orders of magnitude from 1.33 S m(-1) to 1.0 × 10(7) S m(-1), which corresponds to 15.9% of the electrical conductivity of bulk silver. In addition to the enhancement of electrical conductivity, the silver chloride (AgCl) layer formed on the surface of the silver layer due to ferric ions (Fe(3+)) enhances the blackness of the transparent conductive film by a factor of 1.69, from 36.29 B to 61.51 B. The sheet resistance and optical transparency of a roll-to-roll printed black transparent conductive film for a touch screen panel are found to be as low as 0.9 Ω□(-1) and 81%, respectively, after conducting the proposed two-step metallization.

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This study examines the effects of substrate heating on the amorphous structure of InGaZnO4 (IGZO) films and the device performance of transistors produced from these films. By combining high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and energy-filtered selected area electron diffraction (EF-SAED), we found that the atomic order improved significantly for the IGZO films deposited on a heated substrate, compared to the samples deposited on an unheated substrate and postannealed. Measurement of the electrical characteristics of the transistors discloses that the amorphous structure changes induced by substrate heating profoundly influenced the overall device performance, leading to a substantial increase in electron mobility.

We have investigated electrical and microstructural properties of Pt-germanides as a function of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) temperature. As increasing RTA temperatures, Pt films reacted with Ge and produced Pt-germanides. The Pt 2 Ge 3 phase was completely transformed into PtGe 2 at the RTA temperatures in the excess of 500 C. The specific contact resistivity (q c ) and sheet resistance (R s ) were investigated as a function of germanidation temperatures. Both q c and R s increased after the RTA process of 400 C, and then decreased with increasing annealing temperature. The increase in R s and q c at 400 C could be associated with the presence of a highly resistive Pt 2 Ge 3 phase. RTA process at 700 C led to the severe degradation of surface and interface morphologies of a PtGe 2 film caused by the agglomeration. This could be responsible for the main contribution to the increase in R s and q c .