Role of double ITO/In2O3 layer for high efficiency amorphous/crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells

• In-situ RF magnetron sputtered ITO/In2O3 films were deposited on glass substrates.
• The double ITO/In2O3 layer showed higher work function and visible transmittance.
• The higher grain sizes and crystallinity was shown by double ITO/In2O3 layer.
• The double ITO/In2O3 layer was applied as anti-reflection electrode in HIT solar cell.
• The double ITO/In2O3 layer can be used to modify front barrier height in HIT cell.

The high work function transparent conductive oxide films can be use to modify the front barrier height of amorphous/crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells. We report the implementation of double ITO/In2O3 films as a front anti-reflection electrode in amorphous/crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells. The In2O3 and ITO films were deposited by in-situ radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering system. The thin In2O3 films were used to modify the front contact barrier height of amorphous/crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cell due to their high work function while the ITO films were used to improve the conductivity of front transparent conductive oxide layer. We investigated the electrical and optical properties of double ITO/In2O3 layer with the variation of film thickness. In order to satisfy the requirement of solar cell applications, the optimum combination of thickness in terms of sheet resistance, resistivity, transmittance, etc. was sought. The double ITO/In2O3 layer with the thickness of 80/20 nm were applied as front anti-reflection electrode and the best performance of the device was found to be; Voc = 670 mV, Jsc = 37.42 mA/cm2, FF = 71.16% and η = 17.84%.

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