Transparent conductor materials with enhanced near infrared properties and methods of forming thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11891687-B2
Application number	US-202017038991-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2020
Priority date	Sep 30, 2019
Publication date	Feb 6, 2024
Grant date	Feb 6, 2024

Abstract

A method is provided for manufacturing an article comprising a transparent conductive material, wherein a transparent conductive material (e.g., indium tin oxide) is deposited onto a substrate (e.g., fused silica) by physical vapor deposition, then annealed at high temperature (i.e., at least 450° C.) in a nitrogen atmosphere. The resulting article comprises a transparent conductive material that reduces the trade-off between low resistivity (or sheet resistance) and high near infrared transmission. For example, the transparent conductive material thus obtained may possess a transmission of at least 80% at 1550 nm while having a resistivity of less than or equal to about 5×10 −4 Ohm-cm and a Haacke figure of merit of at least about 40×10 −4 Ω −1 . Also provided is a method for modulating the resistivity and/or the near infrared transmission of a transparent conductive material by annealing the transparent conductive material at a high temperature under nitrogen atmosphere.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for producing an article, comprising:
(a) depositing a layer of transparent conductive material on a substrate, wherein the layer of the transparent conductive material has a thickness from about 20 nm to about 250 nm; and
(b) annealing the transparent conductive material at a temperature of at least about 450° C. for at least about 30 minutes,
wherein after the annealing, the transparent conductive material has a transmission of at least about 70% at 1550 nm or a Haacke figure of merit of at least about 40×10 −4 Ω −1 .

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the temperature that the annealing takes place at is from about 750° C. to about 900° C.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transparent conductive material comprises indium tin oxide.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the layer of the transparent conductive material is from about 50 nm to about 150 nm.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the layer of the transparent conductive material has a resistivity of less than or equal to about 5×10 −4 Ohm-cm after the annealing.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the depositing comprises physical vapor deposition.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the depositing comprises magnetron sputtering.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the annealing takes place in an atmosphere containing less than about 5% oxygen.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the layer of the transparent conductive material has a transmission over the visible range from 380 nm to 750 nm of at least 80% after the annealing.

10. A method for modulating the resistivity and optical transmission of a transparent conductive material, comprising annealing the transparent conductive material at a temperature of at least 450° C. for at least about 30 minutes, wherein after the annealing, the transparent conductive material has a transmission of at least about 70% at 1550 nm or a Haacke figure of merit of at least about 40×10 −4 Ω −1 .

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the transparent conductive material comprises indium tin oxide.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the wherein the thickness of the layer of the transparent conductive material is from about 20 nm to about 250 nm.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein after the annealing, the transmission is at least about 80% at 1550 nm or the Haacke figure of merit is at least about 60×10 −4 Ω −1 .

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein after the annealing, the transmission is at least about 70% at 1550 nm and the Haacke figure of merit is at least about 40×10 −4 Ω −1 .

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the annealing takes place in an atmosphere containing less than about 5% oxygen.

16. An article, comprising a layer of a transparent conductive material, wherein the layer of the transparent conductive material has a thickness of from about 20 nm to about 250 nm, at least one of a transmission of at least 70% at 1550 nm or a Haacke figure of merit of at least 40×10 −4 Ω −1 and the article is produced using the method of claim 1 .

17. The article of claim 16 , wherein the transparent conductive material comprises indium tin oxide.

18. The article according to claim 16 , wherein the layer of the transparent conductive material has a resistivity of less than or equal to about 5×10 −4 Ohm-cm.

19. The article of claim 16 , wherein the transmission is at least about 80% at 1550 nm and the Haacke figure of merit is at least about 60×10 −4 Ω −1 .

20. The article of claim 16 , wherein the layer of the transparent conductive material has a transmission in the visible range of at least 80%.

Assignees

• Corning Inc
• Icfo—The Inst Of Photonic Sciences
• Inst Catalana Recerca Estudis Avancats
• Icrea
• Icfo

Inventors

• Maniyara Rinu
• Mazumder Prantik
• Pruneri Valerio

Classifications

• H10F71/138

  Manufacture of transparent electrodes, e.g. transparent conductive oxides [TCO] or indium tin oxide [ITO] electrodes · CPC title

• H10F77/247 Primary

  comprising indium tin oxide [ITO] · CPC title

• C23C14/5806 Primary

  Thermal treatment · CPC title

• C23C14/086

  of zinc, germanium, cadmium, indium, tin, thallium or bismuth · CPC title

• C23C14/35

  by application of a magnetic field, e.g. magnetron sputtering {(C23C14/3457 takes precedence)} · CPC title