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In the dynamic field of photovoltaic technology, the pursuit of efficiency and sustainability has led to continuous novelty, shaping the landscape of solar energy solutions. One of the key elements affecting the efficiency of photovoltaic cells of IInd and IIIrd generation is the presence of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layers, which are key elements impacting the efficiency and durability of solar panels, especially for DSSC, CdTe, CIGS (copper indium gallium diselenide) or organic, perovskite and quantum dots. TCO with low electrical resistance, high mobility, and high transmittance in the VIS–NIR region is particularly important in DSSC, CIGS, and CdTe solar cells, working as a window and electron transporting layer. This layer must form an ohmic contact with the adjacent layers, typically the buffer layer (such as CdS or ZnS), to ensure efficient charge collection Furthermore it ensures protection against oxidation and moisture, which is especially important when transporting the active cell structure to further process steps such as lamination, which ensures the final seal. Transparent conductive oxide layers, which typically consist of materials such as indium tin oxide (ITO) or alternatives such as fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO), serve dual purposes in photovoltaic applications. Primarily located as the topmost layer of solar cells, TCOs play a key role in transmitting sunlight while facilitating the efficient collection and transport of generated electrical charges. This complex balance between transparency and conductivity highlights the strategic importance of TCO layers in maximizing the performance and durability of photovoltaic systems. As the global demand for clean energy increases and the photovoltaic industry rapidly develops, understanding the differential contribution of TCO layers becomes particularly important in the context of using PV modules as building-integrated elements (BIPV). The use of transparent or semi-transparent modules allows the use of building glazing, including windows and skylights. In addition, considering the dominant position of the Asian market in the production of cells and modules based on silicon, the European market is intensifying work aimed at finding a competitive PV technology. In this context, thin-film, organic modules may prove competitive. For this purpose, in this work, we focused on the electrical parameters of two different thicknesses of a transparent FTO layer. First, the influence of the FTO layer thickness on the transmittance over a wide range was verified. Next, the chemical composition was determined, and key electrical parameters, including carrier mobility, resistivity, and the Hall coefficient, were determined.

The requirement of mounting several access points and base stations is increasing tremendously due to recent advancements and the need for high-data-rate communication services of 5G and 6G wireless communication systems. In the near future, the enormous number of these access points might cause a mess. In such cases, an optically transparent antenna (OTA) is the best option for making the environment more appealing and pleasant. OTAs provide the possible solution as these maintain the device aesthetics to achieve transparency as well as fulfill the basic coverage and bandwidth requirements. Various attempts have been made to design OTAs to provide coverage for wireless communication, particularly for the dead zones. These antennas can be installed on building windows, car windscreens, towers, trees, and smart windows, which enables network access for vehicles and people passing by those locations. Several transparent materials and techniques are used for transparent antenna design. Thin-film and mesh-grid techniques are very popular to transform metallic parts of the antenna into a transparent material. In this article, a comprehensive review of both the techniques used for the design of OTAs is presented. The performance comparison of OTAs on the basis of bandwidth, gain, transparency, transmittance, and efficiency is also presented. An OTA is the best choice in these situations to improve the aesthetics and comfort of the surroundings with high antenna performance.

In this study, the design, fabrication and detailed analysis of semi-transparent bifacial organic solar cells (ST-OSC) based on MoO 3 /Ag/WO 3 (10/d m /d od nm) dielectric/metal/dielectric (DMD) transparent contact system integrated with PTB7 polymer were investigated. The study emphasizes the importance of designing transparent contact systems to optimize the solar cells’ transparency (average visible transmittance, AVT), color rendering (color rendering index, CRI), efficiency (power conversion efficiency, PCE), and bifaciality. The performance of three distinct configurations was examined in the AVT max (47.14% AVT, 3.93% PCE), (CRI ext ) max (23.82% AVT, 6.21% PCE), and Extreme Color (26.34% AVT, 5.81% PCE). The theoretically predicted AVTs for these configurations were 48.75%, 22.29%, and 25.15%, respectively. The strong agreement between theoretical and observed outcomes confirmed the accuracy of the Transfer Matrix Model (TMM). Furthermore, the assessment of bifaciality performance exhibited that the AVT max had a bifaciality factor of 0.94, with a PCE of 3.67% under top illumination and 3.93% under bottom illumination. The high bifaciality of the structure designed with TMM to maximize the AVT demonstrates the value of calculations prior to solar cell structure fabricating and the possibility of constructing high bifaciality structures using this technique.

Human–computer interfaces, smart glasses, touch screens, and some electronic skins require highly transparent and flexible pressure‐sensing elements. Flexible pressure sensors often apply a microstructured or porous active material to improve their sensitivity and response speed. However, the microstructures or small pores will result in high haze and low transparency of the device, and thus it is challenging to balance the sensitivity and transparency simultaneously in flexible pressure sensors or electronic skins. Here, for a capacitive‐type sensor that consists of a porous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film sandwiched between two transparent electrodes, the challenge is addressed by filling the pores with ionic liquid that has the same refractive index with PVDF, and the transmittance of the film dramatically boosts from 0 to 94.8% in the visible range. Apart from optical matching, the ionic liquid also significantly improves the signal intensity as well as the sensitivity due to the formation of an electric double layer at the dielectric‐electrode interfaces, and improves the toughness and stretchability of the active material benefiting from a plasticization effect. Such transparent and flexible sensors will be useful in smart windows, invisible bands, and so forth. An opaque to transparent transition happens when a microporous dielectric is filled with ionic liquid with a close refractive index. For a capacitive‐type pressure sensor with a porous dielectric, the filling of ionic liquid can significantly improve its transparency to 90%, and enhance its sensitivity by introducing electric double layers, thus enabling wide applications.

In this review article, an investigation of optically transparent antenna (OTA) has been carried out. The literature proceeds with a series of steps required for designing OTA, which includes patch material selection, substrate selection, material synthesis, deposition methods, and material characterization. This is followed by discussions of different types of transparent antenna, such as transparent conductive oxides (TCOs), multi-layered film, multi-band, meshed, conductive water, conductive fabric, and nano-composites. Furthermore, this paper addresses the challenges and limitations involved in the design of OTA. Finally, emerging materials and applications related to OTA are discussed.

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have emerged recently as promising candidates for next generation photovoltaics and have reached power conversion efficiencies of 25.2%. Among the various methods to advance solar cell technologies, the implementation of nanoparticles with plasmonic effects is an alternative way for photon and charge carrier management. Surface plasmons at the interfaces or surfaces of sophisticated metal nanostructures are able to interact with electromagnetic radiation. The properties of surface plasmons can be tuned specifically by controlling the shape, size, and dielectric environment of the metal nanostructures. Thus, incorporating metallic nanostructures in solar cells is reported as a possible strategy to explore the enhancement of energy conversion efficiency mainly in semi‐transparent solar cells. One particularly interesting option is PSCs with plasmonic structures enable thinner photovoltaic absorber layers without compromising their thickness while maintaining a high light harvest. In this Review, the effects of plasmonic nanostructures in electron transport material, perovskite absorbers, the hole transport material, as well as enhancement of effective refractive index of the medium and the resulting solar cell performance are presented. Aside from providing general considerations and a review of plasmonic nanostructures, the current efforts to introduce these plasmonic structures into semi‐transparent solar cells are outlined. Implementation of nanoparticles (NPs) with plasmonic effects is an effective strategy for photon and charge dynamic management in perovskite solar cells (PSCs). The outstanding effects of plasmonic nanostructures such as Ag NPs decorated on TiO2 nanowires in electron transport materials as well as localized surface plasmon resonance of Au NPs in hole transport materials enhance the photovoltaic response of PSCs.

With consumer electronics transitioning toward flexible products, there is a growing need for high-performance, mechanically robust, and inexpensive transparent conductors (TCs) for optoelectronic device integration. Herein, we report the scalable fabrication of highly conductive poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) thin films via solution shearing. Specific control over deposition conditions allows for tunable phase separation and preferential PEDOT backbone alignment, resulting in record-high electrical conductivities of 4,600 ± 100 S/cm while maintaining high optical transparency. High-performance solution-sheared TC PEDOT:PSS films were used as patterned electrodes in capacitive touch sensors and organic photovoltaics to demonstrate practical viability in optoelectronic applications.

The rise of sophisticated black-box machine learning models in Artificial Intelligence systems has prompted the need for explanation methods that reveal how these models work in an understandable way to users and decision makers. Unsurprisingly, the state-of-the-art exhibits currently a plethora of explainers providing many different types of explanations. With the aim of providing a compass for researchers and practitioners, this paper proposes a categorization of explanation methods from the perspective of the type of explanation they return, also considering the different input data formats. The paper accounts for the most representative explainers to date, also discussing similarities and discrepancies of returned explanations through their visual appearance. A companion website to the paper is provided as a continuous update to new explainers as they appear. Moreover, a subset of the most robust and widely adopted explainers, are benchmarked with respect to a repertoire of quantitative metrics.

Soft transparent electrodes (TEs) have received tremendous interest from academia and industry due to the rapid development of lightweight, transparent soft electronics. Metallic micro‐nano networks (MMNNs) are a class of promising soft TEs that exhibit excellent optical and electrical properties, including low sheet resistance and high optical transmittance, as well as superior mechanical properties such as softness, robustness, and desirable stability. They are genuinely interesting alternatives to conventional conductive metal oxides, which are expensive to fabricate and have limited flexibility on soft surfaces. This review summarizes state‐of‐the‐art research developments in MMNN‐based soft TEs in terms of performance specifications, fabrication methods, and application areas. The review describes the implementation of MMNN‐based soft TEs in optoelectronics, bioelectronics, tactile sensors, energy storage devices, and other applications. Finally, it presents a perspective on the technical difficulties and potential future possibilities for MMNN‐based TE development. This article comprehensively summarizes the latest advancements in the field of MMNN‐based soft TEs, focusing on their fabrication techniques, performance characteristics, and application domains. The review provides insights into the integration of MMNN‐based soft TEs within various areas, including optoelectronics, bioelectronics, tactile sensors, and energy storage devices, among others. It also outlines challenges and future prospects for MMNN‐based TEs advancement.

Cubic boron nitride (c‐BN) and hexagonal boron nitride (h‐BN) are known for their transparency and high 10B density, which provides a large thermal‐neutron cross‐section, yet their potential for space neutron shielding has not been explored. The fabrication of transparent c‐BN films remains challenging, and the chemical vapor deposition growth of h‐BN beyond 70 nm, or with precise thickness control and high uniformity, has not been reported except by our group. Here, we present a space window design integrating an h‐BN‐based neutron shielding layer with advanced ceramic bulletproof layers and a γ‐ray shielding layer. By incorporating C and O into h‐BN, sp2‐sp3 hybridized BN (HBN) reduces the refractive index mismatch with the SiO2 substrate, achieving 90.9% transmission at 550 nm at 11.9 µm thickness and enabling stable, transparent growth up to 79.2 µm with minimized thermal expansion mismatch. The optically optimized HBN (B0.39N0.39C0.06O0.16) shows reduced boron content, but the enriched formation of 63.4% c‐BN, with its higher boron density, compensates for this loss. The resultant density is 3.01 g cm−3, evaluated from neutron‐shielding probability, and HBN achieves the same neutron‐shielding efficiency as h‐BN at 3% reduced thickness. Direct growth of sp2‐sp3 hybridized BN (HBN) on quartz, enabled by an h‐BN buffer, produces transparent and stable films up to 80 µm thick with high transmittance and strong neutron shielding, making HBN a promising candidate for space windows in long‐term lunar missions.