Transparent Conducting Oxide Films for Various Applications: A Review

Abstract

This review encompasses properties and applications of polycrystalline or amorphous, Transparent Conducting Oxides (TCO) semiconductors. Coexistence of electrical conductivity and optical transparency in TCO depends on the nature, number and atomic arrangements of metal cations in oxides, on the resident morphology and presence of intrinsic or introduced defects. Therefore, TCO semiconductors that are impurity-doped as well as the ternary compounds and multi-component oxides consisting of combinations are discussed. Expanding use of TCO is endangered by scarcity, cost of In, fragility of glass, limited transparency to visible light, instability above >200 °C, non-flexible for application of flexible solar cell; thus driving search for alternatives such as graphene or CNT, that are more stable under acidic, alkaline, oxidizing, reducing and elevated temperature. There are reasons to conclude that there is need to develop large area deposition techniques to produce TCO films with high deposition rate. TCOs are mostly n-type semiconductors, but p-type are also being researched

Study of TiO2, SnO2 and nanocomposites TiO2:SnO2 thin films prepared by sol-gel method: Successful elaboration of variable–refractive index systems

“…Owing to the numerous published papers on pure transparent conducting oxide (TCO) thin films [2,10], it is necessary to develop other works which could be devoted to change and enhance the properties of these films using new different approaches. The formation of multi-oxide systems or nanocomposites is one of the most important approaches despite the few works devoted to this domain.…”

Comparing metal oxide thin films as transparent p-type conductive electrodes

“…However, a class of oxide semiconductors named as transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) constitute an exception to this rule, because they are rather good conductors of electricity and simultaneously transparent in the visible region [1]. TCO materials in thin films are widely used in a variety of optoelectronic devices ranging from flat panel displays to smart windows or photovoltaic solar cells [2,3], and other advanced photo-sensors [4]. For these applications, transparent metal oxides with high n-type conductivity are commonly used, such as Sn-doped In 2 O 3 , Al-doped ZnO or Sb-doped SnO 2 [2].…”

“…TCO materials in thin films are widely used in a variety of optoelectronic devices ranging from flat panel displays to smart windows or photovoltaic solar cells [2,3], and other advanced photo-sensors [4]. For these applications, transparent metal oxides with high n-type conductivity are commonly used, such as Sn-doped In 2 O 3 , Al-doped ZnO or Sb-doped SnO 2 [2]. However, the development of high performance p-type TCOs remains a challenge to achieve more efficient hole collection and also to combine with the common n-type TCOs into transparent p-n junctions with active functionalities [5][6][7].…”

Fluorine‐Doped Tin Oxide/Alumina as Long‐Term Robust Conducting Support for Earth‐Abundant Water Oxidation Electrocatalysts

“…Our strategy in the present work consists of a controlled deposition of a conductive material over the AAO surface before the PB addition. SnO 2 is one of the most studied members in the family of transparent conductive oxides (TCO) and, particularly, F‐doped tin oxide (FTO) ,. Besides its transparency in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum and low electrical resistance, it can be easily deposited on different surfaces by spray pyrolysis .…”

“…SnO 2 is one of the most studied members in the family of transparent conductive oxides (TCO) and, particularly, F-doped tin oxide (FTO). [6,[33][34][35][36] Besides its transparency in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum and low electrical resistance, it can be easily deposited on different surfaces by spray pyrolysis. [35][36] We propose for the first time in literature the use of FTO-covered AAO as water oxidation catalyst support.…”