TY - JOUR
T1 - A Brief Review of Transparent Conducting Oxides (TCO)
T2 - The Influence of Different Deposition Techniques on the Efficiency of Solar Cells
AU - Chavan, Ganesh T.
AU - Kim, Youngkuk
AU - Khokhar, Muhammad Quddamah
AU - Hussain, Shahzada Qamar
AU - Cho, Eun Chel
AU - Yi, Junsin
AU - Ahmad, Zubair
AU - Rosaiah, Pitcheri
AU - Jeon, Chan Wook
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.
PY - 2023/4
Y1 - 2023/4
N2 - Global-warming-induced climate changes and socioeconomic issues increasingly stimulate reviews of renewable energy. Among energy-generation devices, solar cells are often considered as renewable sources of energy. Lately, transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are playing a significant role as back/front contact electrodes in silicon heterojunction solar cells (SHJ SCs). In particular, the optimized Sn-doped In2O3 (ITO) has served as a capable TCO material to improve the efficiency of SHJ SCs, due to excellent physicochemical properties such as high transmittance, electrical conductivity, mobility, bandgap, and a low refractive index. The doped-ITO thin films had promising characteristics and helped in promoting the efficiency of SHJ SCs. Further, SHJ technology, together with an interdigitated back contact structure, achieved an outstanding efficiency of 26.7%. The present article discusses the deposition of TCO films by various techniques, parameters affecting TCO properties, characteristics of doped and undoped TCO materials, and their influence on SHJ SC efficiency, based on a review of ongoing research and development activities.
AB - Global-warming-induced climate changes and socioeconomic issues increasingly stimulate reviews of renewable energy. Among energy-generation devices, solar cells are often considered as renewable sources of energy. Lately, transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are playing a significant role as back/front contact electrodes in silicon heterojunction solar cells (SHJ SCs). In particular, the optimized Sn-doped In2O3 (ITO) has served as a capable TCO material to improve the efficiency of SHJ SCs, due to excellent physicochemical properties such as high transmittance, electrical conductivity, mobility, bandgap, and a low refractive index. The doped-ITO thin films had promising characteristics and helped in promoting the efficiency of SHJ SCs. Further, SHJ technology, together with an interdigitated back contact structure, achieved an outstanding efficiency of 26.7%. The present article discusses the deposition of TCO films by various techniques, parameters affecting TCO properties, characteristics of doped and undoped TCO materials, and their influence on SHJ SC efficiency, based on a review of ongoing research and development activities.
KW - ITO thin films
KW - TCOs
KW - deposition techniques
KW - optical properties
KW - silicon heterojunction solar cells
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85152888471&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/nano13071226
DO - 10.3390/nano13071226
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85152888471
SN - 2079-4991
VL - 13
JO - Nanomaterials
JF - Nanomaterials
IS - 7
M1 - 1226
ER -
