Characterization of experimental textured ZnO:Al films for thin film solar cell applications and comparison with commercial and plasmonic alternatives

Author

Payne, David N R ; Boden, Stuart A. ; Clark, Owain D. ; Delahoy, Alan E. ; Bagnall, Darren M.

Author_Institution

Nano Res. Group, Univ. of Southampton, Southampton, UK

fYear

2010

fDate

20-25 June 2010

Abstract

We present the comprehensive characterization of several experimental ZnO:Al films for thin film solar cell applications. The morphological and optical properties of these films are determined using traditional and new, experimental measurement techniques and results are compared to those of the commercial Asahi U-type TCO as well as samples of planar TCOs coated in silver nanoparticles. Results show that the textured ZnO:Al films provide far superior scattering to the commercial alternatives studied. Nanoparticle coated planar TCOs also show scattering enhancement with results suggesting that nanoparticle layers could be tuned to predominantly scatter light within a chosen wavelength range.

Keywords

aluminium; nanoparticles; plasmonics; silver; solar cells; thin film devices; zinc compounds; ZnO:Al; commercial Asahi U-type TCO; morphological properties; nanoparticle coated planar TCO; optical properties; plasmonic; silver nanoparticles; thin film solar cell; Films; Measurement by laser beam; Nanoparticles; Photovoltaic cells; Scattering; Surface topography; Wavelength measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2010 35th IEEE

Conference_Location

Honolulu, HI

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-5890-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2010.5617012

Filename

5617012