Novel transparent conductive oxide thin films
Advanced Research Lab, Master Thesis
Get practical experience in the contemporary scientific field of functional thin-film materials for oxide electronics applications.
Devices requiring transparent electrodes are omnipresent in our society: cell phones screens, touch displays, solar cells… However, most of these devices rely on indium-doped tin oxide or fluorine-doped tin oxide as transparent conducting oxides, which are very expensive. As a consequence, the cost of a tablet tactile display can reach 35% of the tablet total cost.
Yet, transparent conductive oxides exist in another class of materials: perovskites. With their numerous functional properties (semiconductors, ferromagnets, piezoelectrics…), perovskites oxides offer the possibility to grow thin film heterostructures and to develop numerous device applications. In these devices, SrMoO3 is a good candidate electrode, outperforming Pt at room temperature and with lattice parameters matching those of functional perovskites.
We investigate the tailoring of optical properties in SrMoO3-based oxides as highly transparent conductors. For this, we use transition metals for cationic substitution of Mo. The focus of your work will be on the growth of transparent conductive oxide thin films using pulsed laser deposition. Tuning of the optical and electrical properties can be achieved via optimisation of composition and deposition parameters. Additionally, you will perform characterisation of the crystal structure, electrical and optical properties such as transparency of the grown thin films. The obtained results from all characterisation methods will be correlated and used to obtain high-quality transparent conductive electrodes.
During your work you will get deep insights into:
- Pulsed laser deposition of thin films
- X-ray diffraction, resistivity measurements and optical spectrophotometry
- Thin-film patterning using photolithography, including work in a cleanroom
- Valuable experience of work with ultra-high vacuum systems
If you are a curious student, who aims to handle state of the art scientific equipment, then get in touch with us.
You can start your thesis as soon as possible.
A combined Advanced Research Lab + Master project is an option.
Kerndaten
