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

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 40×10−4Ω−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.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.