Picosecond pulsed laser irradiation of silver nanowire films coated on the polyethylene terephthalate substrates.

We investigated the effect of picosecond pulsed laser irradiation on the sheet resistance and microstructure of the silver nanowire films coated on PET substrates. The sheet resistance of the silver nanowire film abruptly increases from ∼102 to ∼108 ohm/square at a certain range of laser power. The sheet resistance of the picosecond laser annealed silver nanowire film strongly depends on the microstructure. The silver nanowires are ablated from the substrate and the surface of the substrate are seriously damaged above certain range of laser power. We analyzed the abrupt increase of sheet resistance and the damage of substrate surface in terms of temperature rising during the laser irradiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]