Plasma damage free sputtering of Ti-doped In2O3 film on Ag nanowire network for transparent and flexible electrodes

We have investigated the electrical, optical, morphological, and mechanical properties of conducting Ti-doped In2O3 (TIO)-coated Ag NW network films as a function of the thickness of TIO layer to apply as transparent and flexible electrodes. By using linear facing target sputtering, the TIO layer was uniformly covered on the Ag NW without plasma damage. Due to high conductivity and optical transmittance of Ag NW, the 10 nm-thick TIO coated Ag NWs showed a low sheet resistance of 67.62 Ω/sq and an optical transmittance of 86.9%. The effective coating of the conducting TIO passivation layer led to improvement of stability of the Ag NW network. In addition, constant resistance change of TIO-coated Ag NW network film indicates that the coating of the TIO layer cannot affect the flexibility of Ag NW network. These results demonstrate that TIO-coated Ag NW network is a promising hybrid electrode for next generation flexible devices.