Investigation of surface energy, polarity, and electrical and optical characteristics of silver grids deposited via thermal evaporation method

In this study, silver grid transparent conducting films are fabricated via the thermal deposition method. The proposed grid shows low sheet resistance and a good figure of merit. The sheet resistance decreased from 688 to 3.37 SZ/square when the thickness was increased from 30 to 70 nm. The samples are characterized in terms of the contact angle to calculate the surface energy and polarity. The surface energy and polarity of the samples increased from 8.15 to 58.029 mj/m2 and 0.024 to 0.067, respectively, when the sulfur content was increased from 6.67 to 9.26% (thickness increased from 50 to 70 nm). The fabricated Ag grid transparent conducting films show good optical and electrical characteristics and have potential for application in optoelectronics. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.