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Impurity Study of Optical Properties in Fluorine-Doped Tin Oxide for Thin-Film Solar Cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Xiaonan Li
Xiaonan Li*
Affiliation:
xiaonan_li@nrel.gov, NREL, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, Colorado, 80401, United States, 303-384-6428, 303-384-7600
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Abstract

Tin oxide (SnO2) is a durable, inexpensive transparent conducting oxide (TCO) material used for thin-film photovoltaic devices. However, the optical properties of conducting SnO2:F are generally not as good as in other conducting TCO materials such as ITO and ZnO:Al. Our previous analyses indicate that for thin-film solar cells, improving the optical properties of SnO2-coated glass could enhance photon collection and gain up to 10% additional photocurrent. Previously, we showed that some commercial SnO2 samples could have much higher optical absorption than others [2]. In this work, we continue our study on causes that could contribute to the high optical absorption of SnO2 films. The SnO2:F samples are fabricated by low-pressure metal-organic chemical vapor deposition or atmospheric-pressure chemical vapor deposition with tin precursors that includes different amounts of chlorine. Optical, electrical, and compositional analyses were performed. In addition to the free-carrier-introduced optical absorption, the non-active dopant also impacts the optical absorption. Among the SnO2 films fabricated with different precursors, the optical properties show a relationship based on the level of chlorine in the precursors and films. With a low-optical-absorption SnO2 layer, the solar cell could have better photon collection and a higher short-circuit current density.

Keywords

optical propertieschemical vapor deposition (CVD) (deposition)thin film
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1165: Symposium M – Thin-Film Compound Semiconductor Photovoltaics–2009 , 2009 , 1165-M06-04
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2009

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References

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