Transparent conductive oxides for nano-SIS solar cells

As a reason of their electrical conductivity and transparency in the visible spectral range transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) are well known as electrodes for OLEDs or LCD displays. Another promising application is a semiconductor-insulator-semiconductor (SIS) solar cell, in which the TCO induces the pn junction and realises a low cost solar cell on crystalline silicon. By using nanostructured silicon interfaces broadband antireflection properties with effective light coupling into the silicon can be achieved. Combined with the SIS concept it is possible to fabricate a low cost and high efficient PV device. For the deposition of thin films of indium tin oxide (ITO) and aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) pulsed dc magnetron sputtering is used. The paper presents the surface modification of silicon by inductive coupled plasma (ICP) etching technology, discusses the influence of different TCO materials to the device, and analyses the optical and structural properties of the cells. Furthermore, the solar cell performance under AM1.5G illumination will be shown