Study of the doping of thermally evaporated zinc oxide thin films with indium and indium oxide

Abstract

The present paper reports observations made on investigations carried out to study structural, optical and electrical properties of thermally evaporated ZnO thin films and their modulations on doping with metallic indium and indium oxide separately. ZnO thin film in the undoped state is found to have a very good conductivity of 90 X -1 cm -1 with an excellent transmittance of up to 90 % in the visible region. After doping with metallic indium, the conductivity of the film is found to be 580 X -1 cm -1 , whereas the conductivity of indium oxide-doped films is increased up to 3.5 9 10 3 X -1 cm -1 . Further, the optical band gap of the ZnO thin film is widened from 3.26 to 3.3 eV when doped with indium oxide and with metallic indium it decreases to 3.2 eV. There is no considerable change in the transmittance of the films after doping. All undoped and doped films were amorphous in nature with smooth and flat surface without significant modifications due to doping.

Insight into band alignment of Zn(O,S)/CZTSe solar cell by simulation

“…Many groups have improved the carrier concentration of the TCO by doping the group III elements like indium into ZnO. [20][21][22][23] Indium acts as a dopant since it has a similar atomic radius to Zn 2+ . It can substitute Zn 2+ in ZnO to form In + Zn substitution, which is an n-type dope for ZnO.…”

Effect of annealing atmosphere on microstructure, optical and electronic properties of spray-pyrolysed In-doped Zn(O,S) thin films

“…It is known that a graded buffer layer (n/n ++ ) with increasing carrier concentration from the absorber to the TCO layer enhances the carrier collection efficiency in the thin film solar cells. Indium, aluminum and gallium are well-known dopants to increase carrier concentration, which can improve and/or control the electrical conductivity of ZnO for its application as TCO [16][17][18]. These dopants act as a donor when it occupies a substitutional position for Zn 2+ cation or an interstitial position in the lattice [19].…”