Article Title

Optical haze of transparent and conductive silver nanowire films

Authors

Colin Preston, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
Yunlu Xu, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA The Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
Xiaogang Han, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
Jeremy N. Munday, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA The Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
Liangbing Hu, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA

Keywords

solar cell, transparent conducting electrode, silver nanowire, haze factor, light trapping

Abstract

ABSTRACT Contemporary nanostructured transparent electrodes for use in solar cells require high transmittance and high conductivity, dictating nanostructures with high aspect ratios. Optical haze is an equally important yet unstudied parameter in transparent electrodes for solar cells that is also determined by the geometry of the nanostructures that compose the electrode. In this work, the effect of the silver nanowire diameter on the optical haze values in the visible spectrum was investigated using films composed of wires with either small diameters (~60 nm) or large diameters (~150 nm). Finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations and experimental transmittance data confirm that smaller diameter nanowires form higher performing transparent conducting electrode (TCE) films according to the current figure of merit. While maintaining near constant transmittance and conductivity for each film, however, it was observed experimentally that films composed of silver nanowires with larger diameters have a higher haze factor than films with smaller diameters. This confirms the FDTD simulations of the haze factor for single nanowires with similarly large and small diameters. This is the first record of haze properties for Ag NWs that have been simulated or experimentally measured, and also the first evidence that the current figure of merit for TCEs is insufficient to evaluate their performance in solar cell devices.

Graphical Abstract

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-013-0323-9

Publisher

Tsinghua University Press

Recommended Citation

Colin Preston,Yunlu Xu,Xiaogang Han,Jeremy N. Munday,Liangbing Hu, Optical haze of transparent and conductive silver nanowire films. NanoRes.2013, 6(7): 461–468