title: Correlated metals as transparent conductors.
abstract: The fundamental challenge for designing transparent conductors used in photovoltaics, displays and solid-state lighting is the ideal combination of high optical transparency and high electrical conductivity. Satisfying these competing demands is commonly achieved by increasing carrier concentration in a wide-bandgap semiconductor with low effective carrier mass through heavy doping, as in the case of tin-doped indium oxide (ITO). Here, an alternative design strategy for identifying high-conductivity, high-transparency metals is proposed, which relies on strong electron-electron interactions resulting in an enhancement in the carrier effective mass. This approach is experimentally verified using the correlated metals SrVO3 and CaVO3, which, despite their high carrier concentration (>2.2 × 10(22) cm(-3)), have low screened plasma energies (<1.33 eV), and demonstrate excellent performance when benchmarked against ITO. A method is outlined to rapidly identify other candidates among correlated metals, and strategies are proposed to further enhance their performance, thereby opening up new avenues to develop transparent conductors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.|Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Rutgers, New Jersey 08854, USA.
authors.forename: Yuanjun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.|Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Weiwei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, USA.|Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, USA.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barnes
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.|Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Hai-Tian
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1122-8647
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.|Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Eaton
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.|Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Yuanxia
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.|Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brahlek
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, USA.|Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, USA.
authors.forename: Hamna F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Haneef
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, USA.|Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606, USA.
authors.forename: Nikolas J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Podraza
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Moses H W
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Venkatraman
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gopalan
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Rutgers, New Jersey 08854, USA.
authors.forename: Karin M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Rabe
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.|Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Roman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Engel-Herbert