Fabrication of transparent NiTe₂ electrodes via magnetron sputtering combined with chemical exfoliation

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Transparent conductive NiTe<SUB>2</SUB> electrodes have been fabricated via magnetron sputtering followed by chemical exfoliation. The freshly deposited NiTe<SUB>2</SUB> thin films with thicknesses of 9 nm exhibited an electrical resistivity of 82 μΩ cm and transparency of 53%, which were further increased by chemical exfoliation up to 289 μΩ cm and 61% (70% at a wavelength of 285 nm), respectively. The thin films obtained by sputtering an intermetallic NiTe<SUB>2</SUB> target were characterized by lower electrical resistivity as compared to that of the films fabricated by co-sputtering of Ni and Te targets, which could be attributed to the larger number of grains with the out-of-plane <I>c</I>-axis orientation.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Transparent and conductive NiTe<SUB>2</SUB> electrodes were fabricated by sputtering. </LI> <LI> Reduction in thickness by chemical exfoliation increased their transparency. </LI> <LI> Sputtering of NiTe<SUB>2</SUB> led to higher conductivity than co-sputtering of Ni and Te. </LI> <LI> Grains with basal planes parallel to substrate are crucial to the conductivity. </LI> </UL> </P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>The fabrication of transparent conductive NiTe<SUB>2</SUB> electrodes was performed via magnetron sputtering combined with chemical exfoliation.</P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>