F-In-codoped ZnO (FIZO) films produced by corona-discharge-assisted ultrasonic spray pyrolysis and hydrogenation as electron-selective contacts in FIZO/SiOx/p-Si heterojunction crystalline silicon solar cells with 10.5% efficiency

Abstract

In this paper, we report the first results obtained by corona-discharge-assisted ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (CDA-USP), a method proposed by us for growing thin transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films. We have grown F-In-codoped ZnO (FIZO) thin films by this method and investigated their properties from the viewpoint of their potential application as electron-selective contacts to p-type silicon. In particular, we have examined the effect of film thickness and post-deposition annealing in hydrogen on the structure, morphology, elemental composition, and electrical and optical properties of the FIZO films and on the photovoltaic properties of FIZO/SiOx/p-Si heterojunctions and related solar cells. We have obtained solar cells with 10.5% conversion efficiency (total area) under 1-sun illumination, which is the highest value reported for TCO/Si heterojunction solar cells with ZnO-based TCOs.