Metal-enhanced adsorption of high-density polyelectrolyte nucleation-inducing seed layer for highly conductive transparent ultrathin metal films

Abstract

In recent years, ultrathin Ag films (UTAFs), which are attractive owing to its extremely low resistance, relatively high transparency, excellent mechanical flexibility, and mature mass production, have been reported as potential candidates to replace traditional indium tin oxide (ITO). To achieve a high-quality UTAF, a nucleation-inducing seed layer (NISL) is required to address the issue of irregular Ag islands growth. However, the structures of films so deposited are still far from being ideal and consist of rough surfaces with high densities of voids and grain boundaries when the film thickness is