Impact of Substrate Rigidity on the Structure of Multilayer Nanoscale ITO Films: Implications for Flexible Electronic Devices

Polymeric substrates have become increasingly important in the recent drive in technology to produce flexible displays and mechanically adaptable devices. Multi-nanoscale layer coatings are often necessary for specific device applications and these complex coatings are often fabricated by sputtering onto the substrate. Correlating fabrication conditions to bi-layer structure and performance is currently investigated by monitoring microstructure via x-ray diffraction, and microscopy, but these techniques do not provide an understanding of interfacial structure between subsequent layers. The work presented here investigates the impact of depositing increasingly thick bi-layer films of indium tin oxide (ITO) and tungsten (W) on flexible (Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET)) and rigid (silicon) substrates by utilizing complimentary characterization methods of x-ray and neutron reflectivity to study the nanoscale structures (depth profile and interfacial breadth) between layers. Sputtering a W layer onto ITO th...