Patterned few nanometer-thick silver films with high optical transparency and high electrical conductivity

Transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) are experimentally demonstrated using patterned few nanometer-thick silver films on zinc oxide-coated rigid and flexible substrates. The grid lines are completely continuous, but only 8.4 nm thick. This is the thinnest metallic grid we are aware of. Owing to the high transparency of both the grid lines and spacing, our TCE with an opening ratio (OR) as small as 36% achieves an average optical transmittance up to similar to 90% in the visible regime, breaking the optical limits of both the unpatterned film counterpart and the thick grid counterpart (whose optical transmittance is determined by the OR). The small OR enables a low sheet resistance of similar to 21.5 omega sq(-1). The figure of merit up to similar to 17 k omega(-1) is superior to those of the unpatterned film counterpart, our fabricated 180 nm thick ITO, as well as most reported thick metal grid TCEs. Our ultrathin TCE, firmly attached to the substrate, is mechanically more flexible and more stable than the film counterpart and ITO. As a flexible transparent film heater, it achieves comparable or even superior heating performances with previously-reported heaters and performs well in a thermochromic test.

Automated summary

Transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) are experimentally demonstrated using patterned few nanometer-thick silver films on zinc oxide-coated rigid and flexible substrates. The ultrathin TCE, with high transparency and low sheet resistance, breaks the optical limits of unpatterned film counterparts and achieves superior figure of merit compared to thick metal grid TCEs.