Transparent Conductive Oxides. Part I. General Review of Structural, Electrical and Optical Properties of TCOs Related to the Growth Techniques, Materials and Dopants

International audienceThis contribution, based on literature review, presents a general overview of properties and applications of transparent conductive oxides, TCO. The requested properties of TCO are a high conductivity associated to high transparency in a wide wavelength range. The relation between the techniques used for deposition or growing TCO and the possibility of their doping with appropriate dopant and concentration were discussed relatively to their applications and properties. Thus, we present in this part, the various possible techniques for growing TCO and discuss the effect of the temperature on the functional properties. This self-consistent presentation is also considered to introduce a better understanding of the expected requirements for TCO integrated as transparent electrodes in photovoltaic cells and modules. These developments of TCO for photovoltaic applications will be presented in a second publication