As of 2026-09-11 · the last 10 years
Indium’s research intensity sits at about 98% of its all-time peak, with the historical high (1969) falling outside this window.
Research intensity ran from about 92% of the element's own all-time peak in 2016 to about 98% in 2026 — a mid-window dip followed by a recovery, and the all-time peak (1969) lies before this window. Over the same span its share of research attention across all elements rose. Among the 118 elements, indium has a larger-than-average research literature.
The number of papers involving the element rose from about 55,625 in 2016 to about 98,504 in 2025 (1.77x). That is slower than the literature as a whole grew over the same years, so the element lost ground in the wider body of research even as its own count rose.
The largest material research community is Indium Oxide Thin-Film Transistors and Transparent Conductors. These papers focus on amorphous indium oxide and indium gallium zinc oxide films for transparent electrodes and thin-film transistor channels. Indium is one strand of a broader community, with about 19% of its papers involving indium. This community holds about 17% of indium’s recent research, a share that has declined from about 23% in the previous period. A key anchor is a 2022 paper on scaled indium oxide transistors fabricated using atomic layer deposition, cited over 290 times.
Next is Indium-Gallium-Nitride Quantum Wells for Light-Emitting Diodes, which focuses on InGaN quantum well structures to optimize light-emitting diode performance and quantum efficiency. Indium is one strand of a broader community, with about 16% of its papers involving indium. This community holds about 10% of indium’s recent research, a share that has remained steady. A 2025 study on advanced technologies in InGaN micro-LED fabrication to mitigate the sidewall effect, cited about 78 times, represents recent high-impact work here.
Indium Tin Oxide Electrodes in Tandem Solar Cells focuses on indium tin oxide as a transparent conductive substrate for perovskite-silicon and CIGS tandem photovoltaic devices. Indium is a minor presence in this much larger community, with about 3% of its papers involving indium. However, this community holds about 8% of indium’s recent research, a share that has remained steady. The most cited paper in the window belongs to this community: a 2019 review on halide perovskite photovoltaics, cited over 3,000 times.
Finally, Indium in Thin-Film Photovoltaics and Transparent Conductors covers indium as a core constituent in CIGS and perovskite solar cells and as a dopant in transparent conductive oxides. Indium is one strand of a broader community, with about 11% of its papers involving indium. This community holds about 8% of indium’s recent research, a share that has declined from about 13% in the previous period. A 2024 paper in Nature Energy on copper indium gallium selenide solar cells, cited over 410 times, anchors this area.
Overall, the composition of indium research has shifted: the Indium Oxide Thin-Film Transistors and Indium in Thin-Film Photovoltaics communities have lost share, while the remainder of the field has grown. For a deeper look at indium’s current standing, see the Last 12 Months and Executive Brief reports.
What changed in the past year: new papers, shifting applications, emerging collaborators. See the momentum over a shorter window than the decade view.
Personal →See recent trends — Personal.
A by-topic status read of what changed and what's new — built for decision-makers, not search engines. Citation clusters, emerging applications, and the papers that matter most.
Professional →See the executive read — Professional.
These are the nine that matter most. There are more — browse all of them free.
Found one worth keeping? A free account remembers it for you, so you're not re-finding it every visit.
Showing Indium's three strongest connections. Personal opens the slider and the whole 118-element graph.