Effect of Grain Size and Distribution on the Shielding Effectiveness of Transparent Conducting Thin Films

This paper presents a morphological and functional characterization of nanostructured thin films featuring high radio frequency shielding effectiveness and high optical transparency in the wavelength range 400--1500 nm. The film morphology is analyzed at the micro- and nanoscales by processing the images acquired by a scanning electron microscope. A software tool developed for this purpose analyzes the statistical distributions of the film surface grains. Fitting models and experimental evidences are presented in order to describe and predict the correlations between the film morphological and functional properties. The adopted approach and measurement methods are developed to model and optimize a particular transparent conducting oxide but can be easily extended to similar materials, deposition processes, and applications.