The oxidation of Ag nanostructures has been studied as a key step for their degradation under the guiding principle in the previous paper that they are stable when their Fermi level is lower than those of their surroundings. The drop of the Fermi level of a thin Ag layer was caused by the formation of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of certain organic compounds including those of photographic interest and a monolayer of AgI, and attributed to the formation of dielectric layers, whose positive charges were closer to the Ag layer than negative charges. A consideration is given on further examinations needed to realize the above guiding principle in individual devices.

We have investigated a dielectric–metal–dielectric (DMD) multilayer film, which is unique as compared with such conventional transparent conductive oxides as indium tin oxide (ITO). In this study, we have selected MoO3 and Ag as the dielectric material and metal, respectively, and employed a nano-mist method in addition to a vacuum evaporation one. The transmission spectra of the films indicated that the Ag morphology changed from isolated islands to continuous layers with increasing Ag layer thickness, and that the morphology change was enhanced by MoO3. Then, MoO3/Ag/MoO3 (MAM) multilayer-structured transparent electrodes could be fabricated by a nano-mist method as well as by a vacuum evaporation one. Comparative examination is made on the properties of MAM films fabricated by these two methods for their application.

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