Considering the relationship between thin film thickness of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) materials and the reversed pulse time in pulsed-direct current (DC) sputtering, aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films were deposited on glass substrates at different reversed pulse times by
changing oxygen/argon (O2/Ar) gas ratios for window layers of large area CuIn1-xGaxSe2 (CIGS) solar cells. As a result of the reduced sputtering time, the thickness of AZO film was decreased when the reversed pulsed time was increased.
The higher resistance and resistivity of the AZO film was obtained at a higher reversed pulse time. From the structural investigations of AZO such as transmittance and X-ray diffraction (XRD), it was possible to observe the relationship between the crystallinity of AZO and transmittance. Even
at the short reversed pulse time of 0.5 µs, it can be concluded that the accumulated charges on the AZO target are completely cleared and the AZO layers show the highest figure of merit (FOM) with low sheet resistance and high transmittance.
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