Dielectric/Metal/Dielectric Flexible Transparent Electrodes, from Smart Window to Semi-transparent Solar Cells

Abstract

The present manuscript is dedicated to In free transparent conductive andflexible heterostructure electrodes. The new electrodes correspond todielectric/metal/dielectic (D/M/D) multilayer structures deposited under vacuum. In thepresent work, after a fast review of the general properties of D/M/D electrodes using Ag asmetal, we then develop the study of D/Cu/D multilayer structures. We propose to substituteCu to Ag, because it is far cheaper. However, Cu having tendency to diffuse into manydielectrics it is difficult to obtain stable electrodes. We show that using Cu:alloys, i.e. Cu:Niand Cu:Al, as metal it is possible to decrease significantly the Cu ions diffusion and toincrease significantly the stability of the multilayer electrodes with Cu. Finally, we show thatwhen these electrodes are used as anode in organic photovoltaic cells, they can allowachieving efficiency similar to that obtained with ITO.