FURI | Spring 2019

Transparent Conductive Oxide Characterization

The addition of amorphous silicon in silicon heterojunction solar cells cause a loss in electrical conductivity. To compensate, a front and rear layer transparent conductive oxide (TCO) is added to improve carrier transport throughout the cell. The current material of choice for TCOs is indium tin oxide (ITO). However, studies in the past have shown hydrogenated indium oxide to be another suitable TCO for solar cells. Upon annealing, these films are capable of reaching carrier mobilities 4x that of ITO. Hence, this study is to improve hydrogenated indium oxide in solar cells.