2134/12579866.v1
Jing Wang
Jing
Wang
Fabiana Lisco
Fabiana
Lisco
David Hutt
David
Hutt
Lewis Jones
Lewis
Jones
Jake Bowers
Jake
Bowers
Patrick Isherwood
Patrick
Isherwood
Zhaoxia Zhou
Zhaoxia
Zhou
Paul Conway
Paul
Conway
Laser sintering and patterning of gallium-doped zinc oxide/indium-tin oxide nanoparticle films with tailorable electrical and optical properties
Loughborough University
2020
Materials
Manufacturing Engineering
Materials Engineering
Patterning
Laser processing
Nanoparticles
Gallium doped zinc oxide
Indium tin oxide
Transparent conducting oxide
Mechanical Engineering
2020-06-29 08:31:59
Journal contribution
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Laser_sintering_and_patterning_of_gallium-doped_zinc_oxide_indium-tin_oxide_nanoparticle_films_with_tailorable_electrical_and_optical_properties/12579866
Gallium-doped zinc oxide (GZO) and tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) nanoparticles (NPs) were combined to create
bi-component suspensions for the drop-casting and CO2-laser sintering of transparent conducting oxide (TCO)
thin films with significantly reduced ITO content. An aqueous dispersion of ITO NPs enabled the suspension of
GZO NPs without surfactants. Transmission electron microscopy indicated the formation of high aspect-ratio segments of ITO NPs from the suspension through oriented attachment, that persisted in the deposited and sintered
thin films to establish an efficient electrical percolating network within the less conductive GZO NP matrix. Rapid
CO2-laser sintering under argon gas of approximately 800 nm thick NP films yielded resistivities of
7.34 × 10−3 Ω·cm and 116 Ω·cm for pure ITO and pure GZO respectively. However, a bi-component film with
only 19.6 at.% indium (relative to zinc) achieved a resistivity of 3.21 × 10−1 Ω·cm. By changing the ITO content,
the near-infrared transmittance could be adjusted between 13% and 82% and the optical bandgap energy between 3.93 and 3.33 eV, enabling fine-tuning of the properties. Finally, a fast and material/energy efficient processing route was demonstrated for the fabrication of a GZO-ITO circuit pattern using CO2-laser patterning of a
mask and CO2-laser sintering of the NP films.