Atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition of F doped SnO2 for optimum performance solar cells

The potential of thin film photovoltaic technologies in supporting sustainable energy policies has led toincreasing interest in high performance transparent conducting oxides (TCOs), and in particular dopedSnO2, as electrical contacts for solar cells. We have developed an advanced atmospheric pressure chemicalvapour deposition process, by applying fast experimentation and using a combinatorial chemistry approachto aid the studies. The deposited films were characterised for crystallinity, morphology (roughness) andresistance to aid optimisation of material suitable for solar cells. Optical measurements on these samplesshowed low absorption losses, less than 1% around 500 nm for 1 pass, which is much lower than those ofindustrially available TCOs. Selected samples were then used for manufacturing single amorphous silicon(a-Si:H) solar cells, which showed high solar energy conversion efficiencies up to 8.2% and high short circuitcurrents of 16 mA/cm2. Compared with (commercially available) TCO glasses coated by chemical vapourdeposition, our TCO coatings show excellent performance resulting in a high quantum efficiency yield for a-Si:H solar cells