Abstract
Demand for the fabrication of high-performance, transparent electronic devices with improved electronic and mechanical properties is significantly increasing for various applications. In this context, it is essential to develop highly transparent and conductive electrodes for the realization of such devices. To this end, in this work, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD)-grown graphene was transferred to both glass and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates that had been pre-coated with an indium tin oxide (ITO) layer and then subsequently patterned by using a laser-ablation method for a low-cost, simple, and high-throughput process. A comparison of the results of the laser ablation of such a graphene/ITO double layer with those of the ITO single-layered films reveals that a larger amount of effective thermal energy of the laser used is transferred in the lateral direction along the graphene upper layer in the graphene/ITO double-layered structure, attributable to the high thermal conductivity of graphene. The transferred thermal energy is expected to melt and evaporate the lower ITO layer at a relatively lower threshold energy of laser ablation. The transient analysis of the temperature profiles indicates that the graphene layers can act as both an effective thermal diffuser and converter for the planar heat transfer. Raman spectroscopy was used to investigate the graphite peak on the ITO layer where the graphene upper layer was selectively removed because of the incomplete heating and removal process for the ITO layer by the laterally transferred effective thermal energy of the laser beam. Our approach could have broad implications for designing highly transparent and conductive electrodes as well as a new way of nanoscale patterning for other optoelectronic-device applications using laser-ablation methods.
Highlights
For the fabrication of transparent electronic devices, such as touchscreen panels (TSPs) and flat-panel displays (FPDs), it is essential to develop transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) with high transmittance and low resistivity
Indium tin oxide (ITO) has been mainly applied as a typical material for TCEs in electronic devices because of its high figure of merit and good compatibility with conventional semiconductor-processing technology [1–3], the demand for developing new TCE materials with better conductivity has been soaring as the sizes of TSPs and FPDs increase continuously [4–11]
As a method of relatively low-cost patterning, a pulsed laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm was used for direct laser patterning under various laser-beam conditions, and the experimental results were analyzed in terms of the laser ablation threshold of the graphene/indium tin oxide (ITO) double layer for the optimization of the laser-patterning process
Summary
For the fabrication of transparent electronic devices, such as touchscreen panels (TSPs) and flat-panel displays (FPDs), it is essential to develop transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) with high transmittance and low resistivity. Graphene has been widely attempted to be used as one of the promising candidates for TCEs in various optical and electronic device applications owing to its high transmittance and high flexibility [12–14]. For low-cost patterning with high throughput, we demonstrate a direct laser ablation method to pattern the graphene/ITO double-layered films on glass and PET substrates. As a method of relatively low-cost patterning, a pulsed laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm was used for direct laser patterning under various laser-beam conditions, and the experimental results were analyzed in terms of the laser ablation threshold of the graphene/ITO double layer for the optimization of the laser-patterning process
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