Last modified: 2012-01-06
Abstract
Smart materials drawn the attention of the scientists due to their promising potential application in modern society. Among the demanded materials for opto-electronics, transparent conductors are highly requested and possibility to control their optical transparency opens up a new door in optical industry. Here we experimentally demonstrate a smart transparent conductive metal based on plasmonics. We show that by coating a thin silver film with polymeric/Spiro-molecules composite the transparency of the film not only be enhanced rather than the resonance transmission peak can be tuned by adjusting the coating thickness and the wt% of Spiro-molecules content. Using photoswitchable molecules as plasmonic coupler give us the opportunity to demonstrate the first photoswitchable transparent conductor. In other words, the transmission of our device can be enhanced/reduced upon VIS or UV illumination, respectively which demonstrates its potential application for smart optical devices such as smart windows. Although the recovery time takes almost one day, we tremendously reduced it to few seconds by exposing the device to certain organic vapors, demonstrating a photobleaching gas sensor.