Epitaxial Lift-Off of Electrodeposited Single-Crystal Gold Foils for Flexible Electronics

Abstract

We introduce a simple and inexpensive procedure for epitaxial lift-off of wafer-size flexible and transparent foils of single-crystal gold using silicon as a template. Lateral electrochemical undergrowth of a sacrificial SiOx layer was achieved by photoelectrochemically oxidizing silicon under light irradiation. A 28-nanometer-thick gold foil with a sheet resistance of 7 ohms per square showed only a 4% increase in resistance after 4000 bending cycles. A flexible organic light-emitting diode based on tris(bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) that was spin-coated on a foil exploited the transmittance and flexibility of the gold foil. Cuprous oxide as an inorganic semiconductor that was epitaxially electrodeposited onto the gold foils exhibited a diode quality factor n of 1.6 (where n = 1.0 for an ideal diode), compared with a value of 3.1 for a polycrystalline deposit. Zinc oxide nanowires electrodeposited epitaxially on a gold foil also showed flexibility, with the nanowires intact up to 500 bending cycles.

Department(s)

Chemistry

Second Department

Materials Science and Engineering

Comments

The material is based on work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, under grants DE-FG02-08ER46518 (J.A.S.) and DE-SC0008799 (E.C.).

Keywords and Phrases

Cuprous Oxide; Gold; Ruthenium Complex; Silicon, Crystal Structure; Electrical Method; Electrochemical Method; Electronic Equipment; Gold; Nanoparticle; Nanotechnology; Transmittance, Article; Crystal Structure; Electrochemistry; Electrodeposition; Electron Microscopy; Electronics; Light Emitting Diode; Photochemistry; Priority Journal; Semiconductor

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0036-8075; 1095-9203

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2017 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Mar 2017

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