An antireflection transparent conductor with ultralow optical loss (<2 %) and electrical resistance (<6 Ω sq−1)

Abstract

Transparent conductors are essential in many optoelectronic devices, such as displays, smart windows, light-emitting diodes and solar cells. Here we demonstrate a transparent conductor with optical loss of ∼1.6%, that is, even lower than that of single-layer graphene (2.3%), and transmission higher than 98% over the visible wavelength range. This was possible by an optimized antireflection design consisting in applying Al-doped ZnO and TiO2 layers with precise thicknesses to a highly conductive Ag ultrathin film. The proposed multilayer structure also possesses a low electrical resistance (5.75 Ω sq−1), a figure of merit four times larger than that of indium tin oxide, the most widely used transparent conductor today, and, contrary to it, is mechanically flexible and room temperature deposited. To assess the application potentials, transparent shielding of radiofrequency and microwave interference signals with ∼30 dB attenuation up to 18 GHz was achieved.

62‐4: Ultrathin Cu‐Ag Anode for High Light Outcoupling Efficiency by Eliminating Waveguide Mode in OLED

“…This makes the entire OLED stack thinner than 160 nm, which helps to suppress waveguide mode in the OLED structure and thereby enhance its EQE. We show that a complete elimination of waveguide mode is possible only through using our extremely thin metal which is never possible by conventional TCO counterparts such as ITO or even the widely exploited dielectric-metal-dielectric (DMD) based TC that involves dielectric layers with high refractive index material (8,9). This finding opens up a new opportunity to harness the benefit of metal-only transparent conductor (TC) as a means to achieve high performance OLEDs through efficient light outcoupling, which has not been possible with other types of TCOs.…”

Influence of Co-Sputtered Ag:Al Ultra-Thin Layers in Transparent V2O5/Ag:Al/AZO Hole-Selective Electrodes for Silicon Solar Cells

“…Recently, dielectric-metal-dielectric (DMD) structures have emerged as valid candidates to substitute the ITO electrode in silicon solar cells. DMD structures based on V 2 O 5 /Ag/V 2 O 5 , AZO/Ag/TiO 2 have been previously studied and were fabricated using the thermal evaporation technique [19,20]. The main disadvantage of this method is the agglomeration of the metal, related to the particular growth mode (i.e., Volmer-Webber type) of the deposited film.…”

Metal-Enhanced Adsorption of High-Density Polyelectrolyte Nucleation-Inducing Seed Layer for Highly Conductive Transparent Ultrathin Metal Films

“…Recently, FTCEs based on ultrathin metal films (UTMFs) with thickness below 10 nm have generated great interest owing to their high electrical conductivity, good mechanical stability, low surface roughness, and mature fabrication technology (Hatton et al, 2003;Illhwan and Jong-Lam, 2015;Maniyara et al, 2016). However, the metal film with such a low film thickness deposited on a foreign substrate tends to disorderly migrate and aggregate as irregular islands (Volmer-Weber growth mode) due to the surface energy mismatch with the substrate, and consequently exhibits a discrete granular morphology with a high electrical resistivity as well as an additional light absorption and scattering loss, which severely affect both the R sheet and T of the resulting TCE (Zhang et al, 2014).…”