Abstract:
: In this report, an improvement of the electrical performance and stability of a silver
nanowire (AgNW) transparent conductive coating (TCC) is presented. The TCC stability against
oxidation is achieved by coating the AgNWs with a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) layer. As a result,
a UV/ozone treatment has not affected the morphology of the AgNWs network and the PVA protection
layer, unlike non-passivated TCC, which showed severe degradation. The irradiation with an intense
pulsed ion beam (IPIB) of 200 ns duration and a current density of 30 A/cm2
is used to increase the
conductivity of the AgNWs network without degradation of the temperature-resistant PVA coating
and decrease in the TCC transparency. Simulations have shown that, although the sample temperature
reaches high values, the ultra-high heating and cooling rates, together with local annealing, enable the
delicate thermal processing. The developed coatings and irradiation strategies are used to prepare and
enhance the performance of AgNW-based transparent heaters. A single irradiation pulse increases the
operating temperature of the transparent heater from 92 to 160 ◦C at a technologically relevant voltage
of 12 V. The proposed technique shows a great promise in super-fast, low-temperature annealing of
devices with temperature-sensitive components.