Abstract
Transparent conductive multilayer thin films of silver (Ag)-embedded barium stannate (BaSnO3) structures have been deposited onto flexible polycarbonate substrates by magnetron sputtering at room temperature to develop an indium free transparent flexible electrode. The effect of thicknesses of Ag mid-layer and barium stannate layers on optical and electrical properties were investigated, and the mechanisms of conduction and transmittance were discussed. The highest value of figure of merit is 25.5 × 10−3 Ω−1 for the BaSnO3/Ag/BaSnO3 multilayer flexible thin films with 9 nm thick silver mid-layer and 50 nm thick barium stannate layers, while the average optical transmittance in the visible range from 380 to 780 nm is above 87%, the resistivity is 9.66 × 10−5 Ω · cm, and the sheet resistance is 9.89 Ω/sq. The change rate of resistivity is under 10% after repeated bending of the multilayer flexible thin films. These results indicate that Ag-based barium stannate multilayer flexible thin films can be used as transparent flexible electrodes in various flexible optoelectronic devices.
Highlights
Flexible and transparent electronics, such as transparent flexible electronic circuits, organic photovoltaics, flexible electronic book, flat panels wearable computers and flexible organic light emitting diodes[1, 2], are expected to meet emerging technological demands where silicon based electronics cannot provide a solution[3,4,5]
Barium stannate (BaSnO3, BS) is a potential semiconductor material and find a variety of applications in modern technology in different components ranging from optoelectronics, thermally stable capacitors, gas sensors, humidity sensors, etc[15,16,17]
The X–ray diffraction (XRD) and AFM results for BS/Ag/BS multilayer flexible thin films with different thicknesses of the middle Ag layer were shown in Figs S1 and S2 of the Supplementary Information (SI)
Summary
Flexible and transparent electronics, such as transparent flexible electronic circuits, organic photovoltaics, flexible electronic book, flat panels wearable computers and flexible organic light emitting diodes[1, 2], are expected to meet emerging technological demands where silicon based electronics cannot provide a solution[3,4,5]. The flexible thin films of transparent conductive indium tin oxide (ITO) have been investigated extensively and applications due to its low resistivity (≤10−3 Ω · cm) and high light transmittance (≥80%) in the visible region[6, 7]. Some researchers have tried to solve this problem by using a novel structure—a sandwich structure of dielectric/metal/dielectric multilayer system[12,13,14] This structure have flexibility, low resistivity and high transparence due to the reflection from the metal layer can be suppressed by the multilayer system and obtain a higher transparent effect[15]. A sandwich structure of BaSnO3/Ag/BaSnO3 multilayer flexible transparent conductive thin film system was designed and deposited onto polycarbonate (PC) flexible substrates by RF and DC magnetrons sputtering. The bend properties of multilayer flexible thin films are studied as well
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