Indium tin oxide-transparent metal material

What is indium tin oxide?

A transparent metal, indium tin oxide (ITO), is an alloy made from a mixture of 90% In₂O₃ and 10% SnO₂. It presents as a clear, tawny film or yellowish-gray mass that is both transparent and electrically conductive.  Therefore, it is mainly used for making LIQUID crystal display, flat screen, plasma screen, touch screen, organic light-emitting diode, solar panel, antistatic coating, EMI shielding transparent conduction film, as well as various optical coatings, etc., it is likely to be useful in the mobile phone in your hand or in front of the computer accessories produced by it,  And the screens of phones and touch-screen computers may be coated with it, so while you've probably never heard of the transparent metal, it's actually probably in your hand right now.  

In fact, indium tin oxide is a semiconductor material. The bands in this material are not continuous, and there are energy differences between adjacent bands, so the electrons in indium tin oxide need to absorb more energy to complete the transition than the electrons in the conductive metal.  And since the band gap between the adjacent energy levels of INDIum tin oxide is 3.75 ~ 4.0eV, that is, the electrons in this material need at least 3.75eV energy to complete the transition, while the energy of visible light is 1.6 ~ 3.1eV, so the energy of visible light is not enough to make the electrons in indium tin oxide complete the transition.  So indium tin oxide can't absorb visible light, so it looks transparent.  This principle is the same with other transparent materials.  

Make this metal indium tin oxide transparent material is inseparable from the metal indium, but very rare metal indium reserves around the world, it itself is a kind of rare metal, and around the world are not for special indium metal mineral development, it mainly associated in the lead, zinc ore body, therefore, only in the development of lead and zinc to develop at the same time, is the economic benefits.