Efficiency Enhancement of GaAs Photovoltaics Due to Sol-Gel Derived Anti-Reflective AZO Films

Su, Bo; Chu, Sheng Yuan; Juang, Yung Der; Lin, Mei‐Chun; Chang, Chia Chiang; Wu, Chin Jyi

doi:10.1149/2.062203jes

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Experimental Tauc plots were digitized from 73 plots collected from 63 published works, and the extracted slope values were collected into a histogram binned by order of magnitude. Additionally, the collected slopes, NEAR values, and reported and fitted E g values are shown in the Supporting Information.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, ZnO is ideal for this study because as it is a closely stoichiometric material easily synthesized through a number of methods, indicating that the samples considered in published work should be relatively uniform in character, allowing us to address the Tauc method rather than bias arising from sample variability. Zinc oxide thin films can be fabricated using methods such as sol‐gel, chemical vapor deposition, hydrothermal, or solvothermal growth, magnetron sputtering, and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) . It is stable in a hexagonal wurtzite structure with lattice parameters of c = 5.205 Å, a = 3.249 Å .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing Tauc Plot Slope Quantification: ZnO Thin Films as a Model System

Coulter

Birnie

2017

Physica Status Solidi (b)

208

107

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One of the most frequently used methods for characterizing thin films is UV–Vis absorption. The near‐edge region can be fitted to a simple expression where the intercept gives the band gap and the fitting exponent identifies the electronic transition as direct or indirect. [See Tauc et al., Physica Status Solidi 15, 627 (1966); naturally, these are usually called “Tauc” plots.] In earlier work, we found that direct band gaps fitted using Tauc's method can be quite accurate, to ∼1% [see Viezbicke et al., Phys. Status Solidi B 252, 1700 (2015)]. Still, slopes of these Tauc plots are less frequently quantified, even though the slopes are directly rooted in key band‐structure parameters. In this study, we examine the reproducibility of Tauc plot slopes for ZnO as a model direct‐gap material and compare these experimental values with the theoretically derived slope. In contrast to the band gap accuracy, the experimental slope values varied by several orders of magnitude. The histogram of slope values was significantly more compact for Tauc plots exhibiting less Urbach tail contribution. In these cases, the Tauc slopes can provide an order‐of‐magnitude quantification of other key band characteristics such as carrier effective mass.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Tauc Plot Slope Quantification: ZnO Thin Films as a Model System

Coulter

Birnie

2017

Physica Status Solidi (b)

208

107

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“…Numerous deposition methods are available for zinc oxide thin films including sol-gel [24][25][26][27][28][29], chemical vapor deposition [9,18,30,31], hydrothermal [32,33] or solvothermal growth [34], magnetron sputtering [35][36][37][38], and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) [39][40][41][42]. It is stable in a hexagonal wurtzite structure with lattice parameters of (c ¼ 5.205 Å, a ¼ 3.249 Å) [43].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the Tauc method for optical absorption edge determination: ZnO thin films as a model system

Viezbicke

Patel

Davis

et al. 2015

Phys. Status Solidi B

887

419

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One of the most frequently used methods for characterizing thin films is UV–Vis absorption. The near‐edge region can be fitted to a simple expression in which the intercept gives the band‐gap and the fitting exponent identifies the electronic transition as direct or indirect (see Tauc et al., Phys. Status Solidi 15, 627 (1966); these are often called “Tauc” plots). While the technique is powerful and simple, the accuracy of the fitted band‐gap result is seldom stated or known. We tackle this question by refitting a large number of Tauc plots from the literature and look for trends. Nominally pure zinc oxide (ZnO) was chosen as a material with limited intrinsic deviation from stoichiometry and which has been widely studied. Our examination of the band gap values and their distribution leads to a discussion of some experimental factors that can bias the data and lead to either smaller or larger apparent values than would be expected. Finally, an easily evaluated figure‐of‐merit is defined that may help guide more accurate Tauc fitting. For samples with relatively sharper Tauc plot shapes, the population yields Eg(ZnO) as 3.276 ± 0.033 eV, in good agreement with data for single crystalline material.

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“…ZnO is usually a preferred material, mainly because of its low cost, high-quality films, less toxicity, and its implementation is more straightforward [310][311][312][313]. Also, a single layer ZnO coating produces an equivalent enhancement of performance or even a cut above the multiple-layer coatings for GaAs and Silicon solar cells [314,315]. Makableh et al reported an improvement in the performance of the GaAs cell by employing a Zinc oxide ARC deposited by the sol-gel technique.…”

Section: Gallium Arsenide Based Solar Cells (Gaas)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Anti-Reflective Coating Materials: A Holistic Review from PV Perspective

Natarajan

Pugazhendhi

Elavarasan³

et al. 2020

Energies

128

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The solar photovoltaic (PV) cell is a prominent energy harvesting device that reduces the strain in the conventional energy generation approach and endorses the prospectiveness of renewable energy. Thus, the exploration in this ever-green field is worth the effort. From the power conversion efficiency standpoint of view, PVs are consistently improving, and when analyzing the potential areas that can be advanced, more and more exciting challenges are encountered. One such crucial challenge is to increase the photon availability for PV conversion. This challenge is solved using two ways. First, by suppressing the reflection at the interface of the solar cell, and the other way is to enhance the optical pathlength inside the cell for adequate absorption of the photons. Our review addresses this challenge by emphasizing the various strategies that aid in trapping the light in the solar cells. These strategies include the usage of antireflection coatings (ARCs) and light-trapping structures. The primary focus of this study is to review the ARCs from a PV application perspective based on various materials, and it highlights the development of ARCs from more than the past three decades covering the structure, fabrication techniques, optical performance, features, and research potential of ARCs reported. More importantly, various ARCs researched with different classes of PV cells, and their impact on its efficiency is given a special attention. To enhance the optical pathlength, and thus the absorption in solar PV devices, an insight about the advanced light-trapping techniques that deals with the concept of plasmonics, spectral modification, and other prevailing innovative light-trapping structures approaching the Yablonovitch limit is discussed. An extensive collection of information is presented as tables under each core review section. Further, we take a step forward to brief the effects of ageing on ARCs and their influence on the device performance. Finally, we summarize the review of ARCs on the basis of structures, materials, optical performance, multifunctionality, stability, and cost-effectiveness along with a master table comparing the selected high-performance ARCs with perfect AR coatings. Also, from the discussed significant challenges faced by ARCs and future outlook; this work directs the researchers to identify the area of expertise where further research analysis is needed in near future.

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Efficiency Enhancement of GaAs Photovoltaics Due to Sol-Gel Derived Anti-Reflective AZO Films

Cited by 13 publications

References 28 publications

Assessing Tauc Plot Slope Quantification: ZnO Thin Films as a Model System

Assessing Tauc Plot Slope Quantification: ZnO Thin Films as a Model System

Evaluation of the Tauc method for optical absorption edge determination: ZnO thin films as a model system

Anti-Reflective Coating Materials: A Holistic Review from PV Perspective

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