Abstract
The high interest in organic light-emitting device (OLED) technology is largely due to their flexibility. Up to now, indium tin oxide (ITO) films have been widely used as transparent conductive electrodes (TCE) in organic opto-electronic devices. However, ITO films, typically deposited on glass are brittle and they make it difficult to produce flexible devices, restricting their use for flexible devices. In this study, we report on a nano-composite TCE, which is made of a silver nanowire (AgNW) network, combined with aluminum-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al, AZO) by atomic layer deposition. The AgNWs/AZO composite electrode on photopolymer substrate shows a low sheet resistance of only 8.6 Ω/sq and a high optical transmittance of about 83% at 550 nm. These values are even comparable to conventional ITO on glass. In addition, the electrodes also have a very smooth surface (0.31 nm root-mean-square roughness), which is flat enough to contact the OLED stack. Flexible OLED were built with AgNWs/AZO electrodes, which suggests that this approach can replace conventional ITO TCEs in organic electronic devices in the future.
Highlights
Transparent conducting electrodes (TCEs) have been widely used in photo-electronic devices such as thin film transistors, thin film solar cells, and organic lightemitting devices (OLEDs) [1–3], due to their excellent optical and electrical properties, in particular, indium tin oxide (ITO) [4]
A variety of materials have been investigated as substitutes for ITO, including conjugated polymers [8], carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [9], graphene [10], silver nanowires (AgNWs) [11, 12], and metal oxides such as zinc oxide (ZnO) [13, 14]
We have demonstrated that AZO as a modified layer can improve both connectivity and surface roughness in flexible Silver nanowires (AgNWs) electrodes
Summary
Transparent conducting electrodes (TCEs) have been widely used in photo-electronic devices such as thin film transistors, thin film solar cells, and organic lightemitting devices (OLEDs) [1–3], due to their excellent optical and electrical properties, in particular, indium tin oxide (ITO) [4]. A variety of materials have been investigated as substitutes for ITO, including conjugated polymers [8], carbon nanotubes (CNTs) [9], graphene [10], silver nanowires (AgNWs) [11, 12], and metal oxides such as zinc oxide (ZnO) [13, 14]. Among these alternatives, AgNWs, which uses one-dimensional nano-sized silver as the
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