Effect of silver nanowire length in a broad range on optical and electrical properties as a transparent conductive film

Optical and electrical properties of silver nanowire transparent conductive films with a broad range of nanowire lengths were studied. A proposed simulation model demonstrated similar behavior with experimental results for 30 and 90 mu m nanowires, and thus it was used to expand the range of nanowire lengths from 10 to 200 mu m. Theoretical results show that a lengthening of silver nanowires results in an increase of their optoelectronic performance; 200 mu m long nanowire possess 13.5 times lower sheet resistance compared to 10 mu m ones, while the transmittance remains similar for coverage densities of nanowires up to 25%. Moreover, the dependence of the sheet resistance on the length of nanowires changes non-linearly; from 10 to 20 mu m, 20 to 80 mu m and 80 to 200 mu m the sheet resistance drops by a factor of 5, 2.25 and 1.2 respectively. Furthermore, a thickening of nanowire diameters from 30 to 90 nm decreases the sheet resistance to 5.8 times. Obtained results allow a deeper analysis of the silver nanowire transparent conductive films from the perspective of the length of nanowires for various optoelectronic applications. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America