Atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition of F doped SnO2 for optimum performance solar cells

The potential of thin film photovoltaic technologies in supporting sustainable energy policies has led to increasing interest in high performance transparent conducting oxides (TCOs), and in particular doped SnO2, as electrical contacts for solar cells. We have developed an advanced atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition process, by applying fast experimentation and using a combinatorial chemistry approach to aid the studies. The deposited films were characterised for crystallinity, morphology (roughness) and resistance to aid optimisation of material suitable for solar cells. Optical measurements on these samples showed low absorption losses, less than 1% around 500 nm for 1 pass, which is much lower than those of industrially available TCOs. Selected samples were then used for manufacturing single amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells, which showed high solar energy conversion efficiencies up to 8.2% and high short circuit currents of 16 mA/cm(2). Compared with (commercially available) TCO glasses coated by chemical vapour deposition, our TCO coatings show excellent performance resulting in a high quantum efficiency yield for a-Si:H solar cells. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.