Abstract:
The thesis work pertains to experimental investigations and theoretical efforts
towards understanding electrical and thermal conduction properties of metal wire
networks and their effective usage as optically transparent conductors. As background
to the subject matter, Chapter 1 introduces various patterning tools and lithography
in device fabrication while citing examples of interconnected patterns in nature. The
discussion then extends to crack networks used as templates to obtain fine metal
meshes, their importance in transparent conducting electrode (TCE) devices as well
as literature efforts in modelling network based TCEs including an introduction to
Graph theory approach and electrical percolation.
