In this study, we present a novel method for fabricating semi-transparent electrodes by combining silver nanowires (AgNW) with titanium nitride (TiN) layers, resulting in conductive nanocomposite coatings with exceptional electromechanical properties. These nanocomposites were deposited on cellulose nanopaper (CNP) using a plasma-enhanced pulsed laser deposition (PE-PLD) technique at low temperatures (below 200 °C). Repetitive bending tests demonstrate that incorporating AgNW into TiN coatings significantly enhances the microstructure, increasing the electrode’s electromechanical robustness by up to four orders of magnitude compared to commercial PET/ITO substrates. Furthermore, the optical and electrical conductivities can be optimized by adjusting the AgNW network density and TiN synthesis temperature. Our results also indicate that the nanocomposite electrodes exhibit improved stability in air and superior adhesion compared to bare AgNW coatings.

The interaction of a supersonic plasma jet outflow with a background laser-produced plasma plume is experimentally studied. The aim of these studies is to provide an experimental platform to study jet-ambient interactions in an environment relevant to high energy density physics scenarios. The jet outflow is produced by a conical wire array Z-pinch composed of 16 aluminum wires (40 μm diameter each) acting as load of the Llampudken generator (∼400kA, ∼350 ns). The laser plasma plume is produced by focusing a 2 × 1010 W/cm2 laser pulse onto an aluminum target. Our experimental results show that in the absence of laser plasma plume, there is no significant photoionized plasma from the target that interacts with the jet outflow. On the contrary, when combining both plasma sources, a new structure appears at the interaction region. The thickness of this structure is of the order of the inter-particle ion-ion mean free path, which was calculated for a wide range of parameters for each plasma. These results indicate the presence of a collisional shock layer created after the interaction. Further details and potential applications are shown and discussed.

Classical dual-frequency capacitively coupled plasmas (2f CCPs) operating at low pressures and significantly different frequencies are often used for a variety of applications in semiconductor manufacturing in order to control the mean ion energy at the electrodes separately from the ion flux. However, recent computational studies have indicated that this separate control is limited by the frequency coupling effects and by the contribution of secondary electrons to the ionization dynamics [Donkó et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 081501 (2010); Schulze et al., Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 20, 045007 (2011)]. Here, we verify these simulation results experimentally by measuring the ion flux to an electrode as a function of the low frequency (LF) and high frequency power at different neutral gas pressures in a 2f CCP operated at 2.26 MHz and 13.56 MHz in argon. In agreement with previous computational predictions, we find the ion flux to decrease as a function of the LF power at a low pressure of 1 mTorr due to the frequency coupling and to increase as a function of the LF power at a higher pressure of 60 mTorr due to the presence of secondary electrons. These experimental findings show that separate control of ion properties in classical 2f CCPs is generally not possible, but potentially limited to specific discharge conditions.