Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are increasingly critical components in photovoltaic cells, low‐e windows, flat panel displays, electrochromic devices, and flexible electronics. The conventional TCOs, such as Sn‐doped In2O3, are crystalline single phase materials. Here, we report on In‐Zn‐O (IZO), a compositionally tunable amorphous TCO with some significantly improved properties. Compositionally graded thin film samples were deposited by co‐sputtering from separate In2O3 and ZnO targets onto glass substrates at 100 °C. For the metals composition range of 55–84 cation% indium, the as‐deposited IZO thin films are amorphous, smooth (RRMS < 0.4 nm), conductive (σ ∼ 3000 Ω−1 · cm−1), and transparent in the visible (TVis > 90%). Furthermore, the amorphous IZO thin films demonstrate remarkable functional and structural stability with respect to heating up to 600 °C in either air or argon. Hence, though not completely understood at present, these amorphous materials constitute a new class of fundamentally interesting and technologically important high performance transparent conductors.

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The kinetics and mechanisms of combustiain reactions in the Ti-C and Ti-C-Ni systems were studied. Samples were produced by igniting compacts of elemental Ti, C, and Ni powders with a tungsten heating coil under an inert argon atmosphere. Using an elementary model aif the process, the "apparent" activation energies of these highly exothermic reactions were determined by measuring combustion wave velocities and combustion temperatures. For the Ti + C 3 TIC reaction, two different combusition regimes were found. The first, for combustion temperatures greater than 2711 K, was postulated to be controlled by the dissolution of carbon into a titanium melt with an apparent activation energy of 124 f 31 kJ . mol-'. The second, for combustion temperatures less than 2711 K, was postulated to be controlled by the diffusion of carbon through1 a solid T i c layer with an apparent activation energy of 364 2 25 kJ . mol-'. For the reaction Ti + C + 25 wt% Ni 3 T i c + 25 wt% Ni the apparent activation energy was meawred to be 133 f 50 kJ . mol-', corresponding to the dissolution of carbon into a Ti-Ni melt. Temperature profile and microstructural information are also presented. [