Effects of indium tin oxide on the performance of heterojunction silicon wafer solar cells

Abstract

The effects of indium tin oxide (ITO) films on the performance of heterojunction silicon wafer solar cells is investigated, using heterojunction (HET) solar cell precursors. Different ITO deposition conditions are used, which result in significant differences in the performance of HET solar cells. It is found that HET solar cells with ITO films deposited at room temperature exhibit severer sputter damage, while those with substrate heating show less damage. Besides the ITO deposition temperature, the sputtering gas ambient is also investigated. The hydrogen gas used in the ITO deposition can greatly affect the interface properties between the ITO film and the amorphous silicon layers. The champion solar cell fabricated under the optimum ITO deposition conditions (a deposition temperature of 150 °C with optimal gas concentration) shows a conversion efficiency of 19.7%.

MoO x /Ag/MoO x multilayers as hole transport transparent conductive electrodes for n‐type crystalline silicon solar cells

“…ITO and AZO, as conventional TCOs, are usually deposited by sputtering techniques (at temperatures~200 C) which induce damage to the underlying passivation and carrier collecting layers of the solar cells. [11][12][13] The induced sputtered damage can be partially recovered by performing post sputtering annealing processes which increase the overall fabrication cost. To improve the light in-coupling to the solar cells, postdeposition nanostructuring or fabrication of plasmonic metal nanoparticles is crucial.…”