Abstract

In this work, high performance conformal Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films are deposited on transparent and flexible muscovite mica substrates by using Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technique. AZO/mica films possess high optical transmittance at visible and near-infrared spectral range and retains low electric resistivity, even after continuous bending of up to 800 cycles, confirmed by AFM analysis before and after bending tests. Based on the performed optical and electrical characterizations AZO films are implemented as transparent conductive electrodes in flexible Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal (PDLC) smart devices

Highlights

  • Among transparent conductive oxide materials, Al-doped Zinc Oxide (AZO) are very attractive because of their high thermal stability, good resistance to damage by hydrogen plasma and low fabrication cost, compared to the nowadays commercially available ITO layers [1]

  • AZO films were deposited on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) (100 μm) substrate used for references

  • X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of AZO/mica and AZO/PET structures were shown at Figure 1a,b

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Summary

Introduction

Among transparent conductive oxide materials, Al-doped Zinc Oxide (AZO) are very attractive because of their high thermal stability, good resistance to damage by hydrogen plasma and low fabrication cost, compared to the nowadays commercially available ITO (indium tin oxide) layers [1]. ALD technique is a self-limiting deposition method characterized by exposing the growing film to alternating chemical precursors resulting in the sequential deposition of monolayers over the substrate surface [3]. Owing to the above benefits of ALD technique and high performances of AZO layers it is important to implement them onto flexible and transparent substrates. The current leading polymer materials for flexible applications as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) and polyimide (PI) show several limitations as low processing temperature, lack of dimensional stability during processing and significant differences in the linear coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) between the polymer substrate and conductive electrode layer [5]. At the Proceedings 2020, 4, x; doi: FOR PEER REVIEW www.mdpi.com/journal/proceedings

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