Nano-viewpoint in Modeling and Investigation of the D/M/D Transparent-Conductive Layer

Abstract A transparent-conductive film (TCF) is widely used in various electro-optical devices. The dielectric/metal/dielectric(D/M/D) as one type of TCF has been highly considered due to more advantages, such as the possibility of selecting different materials and engineering other properties. For pre-fabrication design, it is often modeled with a 1D photonic crystal. This model needs to be improved due to the low thickness of the metal layer. This thin metallic layer leads to a nanostructure instead of a uniform layer. In this study, after proper nanostructure modeling, the 3D-FDTD method was used to simulate different optical properties of the structure. The first aspect of the importance of the nanostructured model is to address the serious plasmonic resonant losses. They are associated with the complicated metallic form in D/M/D that is not considered in conventional modeling. The simulation results showed that for Ag, plasmonic loss peaks show a wide distribution over the visible. About Al, these peaks show a more significant distribution at the beginning of the visible spectrum. In both, plasmonic loss behavior tends to red-shift. About optical transition, Al does not offer a notable advantage over Ag. Due to the intense excitation of plasmonic losses when the metal layer has pores, a layer of entirely connected nanoparticles with the least possible thickness can have the desired properties. The increased rough surface of the dielectric layer due to the nanostructured metallic layer was also modeled.