Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
11011430 | Solar Energy | 2018 | 6 Pages |
Abstract
Transparent conductive aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were deposited on a flat and nanostructured borosilicate glass substrates by using DC-magnetron sputtering. The aluminum doping concentration was kept at 3.3â¯wt% and the film thickness (100-400â¯nm) was varied. The thin films were then annealed at 250â¯Â°C for 1â¯h in nitrogen and/or argon atmosphere, respectively. AZO thin films exhibited hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO with an intense (0â¯0â¯2) diffraction peak, indicating that they have c-axis preferred orientation. Optical transmittance was observed to be greater than 80% in the visible range for films deposited on both flat and nanostructured glass substrates. The lowest resistivity of 9.7â¯Ãâ¯10â4â¯Î©â¯cm was observed for AZO film of 400â¯nm thickness on flat glass substrate, annealed in Nitrogen atmosphere. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.27% and 2.24% were recorded for organic solar cell devices based on AZO deposited on nanostructured and flat borosilicate glass, respectively. In comparison with the latter, the PCE of ITO based device was recorded to be 3.17%. Due to their good optical and electrical properties, AZO thin films are promising candidates as transparent electrodes in organic solar cells.
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Authors
Pontsho Mbule, Dong Wang, Rolf Grieseler, Peter Schaaf, Burhan Muhsin, Harald Hoppe, Bakang Mothudi, Mokhotjwa Dhlamini,