1. Colloidal-structured metallic micro-grids: High performance transparent electrodes in the red and infrared range.
- Author
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Torrisi, Giacomo, Luis, João S., Sanchez-Sobrado, Olalla, Raciti, Rosario, Mendes, Manuel J., Águas, Hugo, Fortunato, Elvira, Martins, Rodrigo, and Terrasi, Antonio
- Subjects
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ELECTRODE performance , *THIN films , *GRID energy storage , *SOLAR cells , *MULTILAYERS , *POLYSTYRENE - Abstract
One of the most promising approaches to produce industrial-compatible Transparent Conducting Materials (TCMs) with excellent characteristics is the fabrication of TCO/metal/TCO multilayers. In this article, we report on the electro-optical properties of a novel high-performing TCO/metal/TCO structure in which the intra-layer is a micro-structured metallic grid instead of a continuous thin film. The grid is obtained by evaporation of Ag through a mask of polystyrene colloidal micro-spheres deposited by the Langmuir-Blodgett method and partially dry-etched in plasma. IZO/Ag grid/IZO structures with different thicknesses and mesh dimensions have been fabricated, exhibiting excellent electrical characteristics (sheet resistance below 10 Ω/□) and particularly high optical transmittance in the near-infrared spectral region as compared to planar (unstructured) TCM multilayers. Numerical simulations were also used to highlight the role of the Ag mesh parameters on the electrical properties. • High-performing micro-structured Transparent Conductive Materials (TCMs) composed of IZO/Ag Mesh/IZO ultra-thin multi-layers. • Low cost, highly-scalable, easy and no thermal budget method of deposition. • High conductivity and NIR transparency of the TCMs make them attractive for bifacial and multi-terminal tandem solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
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