SrNbO3 as a transparent conductor in the visible and ultraviolet spectra

Few materials are high-performance transparent conductors in the visible regime (400–700 nm), even fewer in the ultraviolet (UV) spectrum, especially below 320 nm. Doped wide-bandgap semiconductors used as UV transparent conductors have insufficient electrical conductivities. This paper proposes SrNbO3 as an alternative, exhibiting excellent performance in both visible and UV spectra. Its high UV transparency stems from the energetic isolation of the conduction band, shifting the absorption edge into the UV. SrNbO3's figure of merit in the 260–320 nm UV range rivals indium tin oxide (ITO) in the visible, making it ideal for high-performance UV LEDs in sanitation, food packaging, photochemotherapy, and biosensing.

Yoonsang Park, Joseph Roth, Daichi Oka, Yasushi Hirose, Tetsuya Hasegawa, Arpita Paul, Alexej Pogrebnyakov, Venkatraman Gopalan, Turan Birol, Roman Engel-Herbert