The effects of orientation changes in indium tin oxide films on performance of crystalline silicon solar cell with shallow-emitter

• Preferable (400) of ITO films shows better electrical properties and work function.
• Preferable (400) of ITO films shows high optical gap and Free-carrier absorption (FCA).
• The higher work-function of ITO films caused the lower open-circuit voltage.
• The highest short-circuit current is trade-off between Burstein–Moss shift and FCA.
• The efficiency of 17.27% is obtained based on c-Si solar cell with shallow emitter.

In this study, a cost effective and low temperature approach to fabricate a shallow-emitter crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cell using a low sheet resistance, and highly transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) as an antireflection layer is presented. Deposited films with either (400) or (222) predominant planes were obtained by varying the substrate temperature. Better crystallization, good electrical properties, higher optical gap, and higher work function were observed for the films with (400) predominant planes; however, the transmittance in the near-infrared region suffered from free-carrier absorption effect. These ITO films were applied to replace the conventional SiNx film, as an antireflection coating for a c-Si solar cell with shallow-emitter having a sheet resistance of 100 Ω/⎕. Using the optimal condition, the photovoltaic parameter of the device yielded an open-circuit voltage and fill factor of up to 604 mV and 81.59%, respectively, resulting in an efficiency of 17.27%. This photovoltaic conversion efficiency, based on the c-Si solar cell with shallow-emitter, is relatively higher than that of the current reports.