Beneficial effects of sputtered ZnO:Al protection layer on SnO2:F for high-deposition rate hot-wire CVD p–i–n solar cells

Hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) has been shown to be promising for depositing thin film silicon materials at higher deposition rate than conventional plasma-enhanced CVD. Due to the higher atomic H density in the gas phase, it is not straightforward to utilize the full benefit of the higher deposition rate of the HWCVD in thin film solar cells in the p–i–n configuration on textured SnO2:F (superstrate configuration). The Transparent Conducting Oxide (TCO) is found to be very sensitive for high atomic hydrogen ambient.This paper presents our investigations on the implementation of ultrathin ZnO:Al protection layers, allowing higher temperatures during i-layer deposition, and thus, higher deposition rates.