Ultra-thin transparent electrodes for energy applications
type: CreativeWork
description: Due to the unique feature of being contemporarily optically transparent and electrically conducting, Transparent Conductive Oxides (TCOs) play a fundamental role in many technologies: communications, information, energy, buildings. Up to now, the most diffused material in the TCO s family was indium tin oxide (ITO), especially for large-area applications such as flat panel displays. Recently, the increasing expansion of the display market and, even more, of photovoltaics, are endangered by the scarcity and rising price of indium. This is one of the reasons and a strong motivation for searching alternative transparent electrodes, not necessarily oxides, to replace ITO. Moreover, in order to meet the expectations for the growing demand and lower production costs for photovoltaic and electronic applications, new TCOs, or equivalent materials, must be abundant, not expensive and very thin, so to be suitable for flexible electronics. Among new transparent electrodes candidates, Aluminium-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films and very thin multilayers of AZO/Ag/AZO have emerged as a very promising alternative . In particular, AZO films are Indium-free and show electro-optical properties comparable to ITO films of the same thickness (700-900 nm for industrial applications), especially after thermal annealing at 250 °C. On the other hand, AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer structures, 10 times thinner than ITO or AZO single layers, show very high transparency and low resistivity even at room temperature. Replacing thick TCO layers with thin TCO/Ag/TCO multilayers would produce great benefits in terms of material consumption, cost, toxicity and flexibility (a mandatory point for the development of the electronics on plastic). In this context, it is important the study and understanding of the fundamental properties of these materials, the process conditions and post fabrication treatments to optimize their application to different fields. Transparent conductive materials are known since about 100…
abstract: Due to the unique feature of being contemporarily optically transparent and electrically conducting, Transparent Conductive Oxides (TCOs) play a fundamental role in many technologies: communications, information, energy, buildings. Up to now, the most diffused material in the TCO s family was indium tin oxide (ITO), especially for large-area applications such as flat panel displays. Recently, the increasing expansion of the display market and, even more, of photovoltaics, are endangered by the scarcity and rising price of indium. This is one of the reasons and a strong motivation for searching alternative transparent electrodes, not necessarily oxides, to replace ITO. Moreover, in order to meet the expectations for the growing demand and lower production costs for photovoltaic and electronic applications, new TCOs, or equivalent materials, must be abundant, not expensive and very thin, so to be suitable for flexible electronics. Among new transparent electrodes candidates, Aluminium-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films and very thin multilayers of AZO/Ag/AZO have emerged as a very promising alternative . In particular, AZO films are Indium-free and show electro-optical properties comparable to ITO films of the same thickness (700-900 nm for industrial applications), especially after thermal annealing at 250 °C. On the other hand, AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer structures, 10 times thinner than ITO or AZO single layers, show very high transparency and low resistivity even at room temperature. Replacing thick TCO layers with thin TCO/Ag/TCO multilayers would produce great benefits in terms of material consumption, cost, toxicity and flexibility (a mandatory point for the development of the electronics on plastic). In this context, it is important the study and understanding of the fundamental properties of these materials, the process conditions and post fabrication treatments to optimize their application to different fields. Transparent conductive materials are known since about 100…
author: BOSCARINO, STEFANO
language: eng
keywords: Transparent Conductive Oxides (TCOs), AZO, ITO, RF magnetron sputtering, ion irradiation, AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer structures, laser scribing processes
date published: 2014-12-09
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:35:19Z
provider: Università degli Studi di Catania
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Università degli studi di Catania

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11769/585975