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Recent advances in the transparent conducting ZnO for thin-film Si solar cells

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Abstract

The key challenge for solar-cell development lies in the improvement of power-conversion efficiency and the reduction of fabrication cost. For thin-film Si solar cells, researches have been especially focused on the light trapping for the breakthrough in the saturated efficiencies. The ZnO-based transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) have therefore received strong attention because of their excellent light-scattering capability by the texture-etched surface and cost effectiveness through in-house fabrication. Here, we have highlighted our recent studies on the transparent conducting ZnO for thin-film Si solar cells. From the electrical properties and their degradation mechanisms, bilayer deposition and organic-acid texturing approaches for enhancing the light trapping, and finally the relation between textured ZnO and electrical cell performances are sequentially introduced in this review article.

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  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Dankook University, Cheonan, 330-714, Korea

    Taeho Moon & Gwang Su Shin

  2. WCU Hybrid Materials Program, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Research Institute of Advanced Materials, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-744, Korea

    Byungwoo Park

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Moon, T., Shin, G.S. & Park, B. Recent advances in the transparent conducting ZnO for thin-film Si solar cells. Electron. Mater. Lett. 11, 917–930 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13391-015-9997-3

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