Suppressing lateral conduction loss of thin-film cathode by inserting a denser bridging layer

Abstract

To reduce the lateral conduction loss of thin-film-processed cathodes, the microstructure of the thin-film cathode is engineered to contain a denser bridging layer in the middle. By doing so, the characteristic crack-like pores that separate the cathode domains in thin-film-processed cathodes and hamper lateral conduction are better connected and, as a result, the sheet resistance of the cathode is effectively reduced by a factor of 5. This induces suppression of the lateral conduction loss and expansion of the effective current collecting area; the cell performance is improved by more than 30%.