Effect of Sputtering Gas environments on the Properties of Aluminum-doped Zinc Oxide Thin Films for Photovoltaic Application

Journal Article · Thu Oct 20 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3646837· OSTI ID:21612011

Chauhan, Ram Narayan; Kumar, Jitendra ^[1]; Singh, C; Anand, R S ^[2]

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1. Materials Science Programme, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur-208016 (India)
2. Electrical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur-208016 (India)

Aluminum-doped zinc oxide thin films have been deposited on glass substrates by R.F. sputtering using ZnO(98%)-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}(2%) target in different sputtering gaseous environments, viz., Ar, Ar/O{sub 2} and Ar/N{sub 2}+H{sub 2} at 80 deg. C. These films have been studied with regard to phase, microstructure, optical absorption and sheet resistance for application in photovoltaic devices as transparent conducting electrodes. The properties of the films are shown to strongly depend on the sputtering gas(es). The films exhibit a wurtzite-type hexagonal structure with the (00.2) preferred orientation, the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate. The intensity of 00.2 diffraction peak and the average crystallite size remain almost the same when the films are prepared under pure Ar or Ar/O{sub 2} environment. However the average crystallite size increases while electrical resistance decreases with introduction of nitrogen and hydrogen in comparison to oxygen in argon. Nevertheless, the optimum value of optical transmittance and sheet resistance of the films deposited in pure argon are found to be 85-96% in the wavelength range 400-800 nm and 65 {Omega}/{open_square}, respectively.

• OSTI ID: 21612011
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1391, Issue 1; Conference: OPTICS 2011: International conference on light - Optics: phenomena, materials, devices, and characterization, Calicut, Kerala (India), 23-25 May 2011; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3646837; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
14 SOLAR ENERGY
ALUMINIUM
ALUMINIUM OXIDES
ARGON
DOPED MATERIALS
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
GRAIN ORIENTATION
HEXAGONAL LATTICES
HYDROGEN
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC EFFECT
SPUTTERING
SUBSTRATES
THIN FILMS
X-RAY DIFFRACTION
ZINC OXIDES
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
CHALCOGENIDES
COHERENT SCATTERING
CRYSTAL LATTICES
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
DIFFRACTION
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ELEMENTS
FILMS
FLUIDS
GASES
MATERIALS
METALS
MICROSTRUCTURE
NONMETALS
ORIENTATION
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOELECTRIC EFFECT
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RARE GASES
SCATTERING
ZINC COMPOUNDS