THz Shielding Properties of Optically Transparent PEDOT:PSS/AgNW Composite Films and Their Sandwich Structures

The modern pace of scientific and technological development dictates unprecedented requirements for the speed of information transfer. The THz range is considered one of the most promising and has been actively developing in recent years. Along with the need to develop transmitting devices, the demand for shielding materials in this range, including transparent ones, is also growing. In this work, we present two types of composite films based on silver nanowires and PEDOT:PSS. We characterized these composite films in terms of optoelectrical parameters, as well as shielding characteristics in the THz range. We found that our composite films have a sheet resistance (R□) of about 8.6 ± 1.2 Ω/□ with a transparency of about 83.41% and shielding efficiency is 25.85 dB in the THz region, which makes them excellent candidates for transparent shielding materials. We also made a bilayer sandwich structure from these composite films, which showed a shielding efficiency of about 49.34 dB in the range of 0.2-0.8 THz with a transparency of 66.33%. In addition, we assessed the possibility of real application of the structures in terms of stability to external conditions. Our composite films sustain atmospheric corrosion and maintain stable sheet resistance for 30 days.