High figure-of-merit ultrathin metal transparent electrodes incorporating a conductive grid

Journal Article · Mon Jan 25 04:00:00 EST 2010 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3299259· OSTI ID:21347247

Ghosh, D S; Chen, T L ^[1]; Pruneri, V ^[1]

---

1. ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, Mediterranean Technology Park, Castelldefels, Barcelona, 08860 Catalunya (Spain)

It is known that ultrathin (<10 nm) metal films (UTMFs) can achieve high level of optical transparency at the expense of the electrical sheet resistance. In this letter, we propose a design, the incorporation of an ad hoc conductive grid, which can significantly reduce the sheet resistance of UTMF based transparent electrodes, leaving practically unchanged their transparency. The calculated highest figure-of-merit corresponds to a filling factor and a grid spacing-to-linewidth ratio of 0.025 and 39, respectively. To demonstrate the capability of the proposed method the sheet resistance of a continuous 2 nm Ni film (>950 OMEGA/square) is reduced to approx6.5 OMEGA/square when a 100 nm thick Cu grid is deposited on it. The transparency is instead maintained at values exceeding 75%. These results, which can be further improved by making thicker grids, already demonstrate the potential in applications, such as photovoltaic cells, optical detectors and displays.

• OSTI ID: 21347247
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 96; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
COMPUTER OUTPUT DEVICES
COMPUTER-GRAPHICS DEVICES
COPPER
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
DISPLAY DEVICES
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ELEMENTS
FILMS
METALS
NICKEL
OPACITY
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PERFORMANCE
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
TRANSITION ELEMENTS