Sputtered Al-doped ZnO transparent conducting thin films suitable for silicon solar cells

Z. Ben Ayadi (1) , H. Mahdhi (1) , K. Djessas (2) , J.L. Gauffier (3) , L. El Mir (4, 1) , S. Alaya (1)

1 Laboratoire de Physique des Matérieux et des Nanomatériaux appliquée à l'Environnement
2 PROMES - Procédés, Matériaux et Energie Solaire
3 Département de Génie Physique
4 College of Sciences, Department of Physics

Highly transparent conducting Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films have been grown onto p-type porous silicon substrates by RF-magnetron sputtering at room temperature using aluminum doped nanocrystalline powder. The obtained AZO films were polycrystalline with a hexagonal wurtzite structure and preferentially oriented in the (002) crystallographic direction. The films are highly transparent in the visible wavelength region with a transmittance higher than 85% and an electrical resistivity of 1.56 × 10− 4 Ω·cm was obtained at room temperature. On the other hand, we have studied the position of the p–n junction involved in the In2O3:SnO2/(n)AZO/Si(p) structure, by electron-beam induced current technique. Current density–voltage characterizations in dark and under illumination were also investigated. The cell exhibits an efficiency of 5%.

Mots clés: Nanostructures; Zinc oxide; Porous silicon; Sol–gel; Sputtering; Solar cells

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Z. Ben Ayadi, H. Mahdhi, K. Djessas, J.L. Gauffier, L. El Mir, et al.. Sputtered Al-doped ZnO transparent conducting thin films suitable for silicon solar cells. Thin Solid Films, 2014, 553, pp.123-126. ⟨10.1016/j.tsf.2013.11.120⟩. ⟨hal-01178075⟩