Volume 21, Issue 8 pp. 1559-1566
Accelerated Publication

High rate (~7 nm/s), atmospheric pressure deposition of ZnO front electrode for Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin-film solar cells with efficiency beyond 15%

Andrea Illiberi

Corresponding Author

Andrea Illiberi

TNO, Thin Film Technology, PO Box 6235, 5600 HE Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Correspondence: Andrea Illiberi, TNO, Thin Film Technology, PO Box 6235, 5600 HE Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

E-mail: [email protected]

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Frank Grob

Frank Grob

TNO, Thin Film Technology, PO Box 6235, 5600 HE Eindhoven, The Netherlands

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Corne Frijters

Corne Frijters

TNO, Thin Film Technology, PO Box 6235, 5600 HE Eindhoven, The Netherlands

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Paul Poodt

Paul Poodt

TNO, Thin Film Technology, PO Box 6235, 5600 HE Eindhoven, The Netherlands

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Ram Ramachandra

Ram Ramachandra

TNO, Thin Film Technology, PO Box 6235, 5600 HE Eindhoven, The Netherlands

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Hans Winands

Hans Winands

TNO, Thin Film Technology, PO Box 6235, 5600 HE Eindhoven, The Netherlands

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Marcel Simor

Marcel Simor

TNO, Thin Film Technology, PO Box 6235, 5600 HE Eindhoven, The Netherlands

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Pieter Jan Bolt

Pieter Jan Bolt

TNO, Thin Film Technology, PO Box 6235, 5600 HE Eindhoven, The Netherlands

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First published: 07 October 2013
Citations: 17

ABSTRACT

Undoped zinc oxide (ZnO) films have been grown on a moving glass substrate by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition at atmospheric pressure. High deposition rates of ~7 nm/s are achieved at low temperature (200 °C) for a substrate speed from 20 to 60 mm/min. ZnO films are highly transparent in the visible range (90%). By a short (~minute) post-deposition exposure to near-ultraviolet light, a very low resistivity value of 1.6·10−3 Ω  cm for undoped ZnO is achieved, which is independent on the film thickness in the range from 180 to 1200 nm. The photo-enhanced conductivity is stable in time at room temperature when ZnO is coated by an Al2O3 barrier film, deposited by the industrially scalable spatial atomic layer deposition technique. ZnO and Al2O3 films have been used as front electrode and barrier, respectively, in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells. An average efficiency of 15.4 ± 0.2% (15 cells) is obtained that is similar to the efficiency of CIGS reference cells in which sputtered ZnO:Al is used as electrode. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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