Effect of annealing on silicon heterojunction solar cells with textured ZnO:Al as transparent conductive oxide

A. Salomon^1a, G. Courtois^1,2, C. Charpentier^1,2, M. Labrune^1,2, P. Prod’Homme¹, L. Francke¹ and P. Roca i Cabarrocas²

¹ TOTAL S.A., Gas & Power – R&D Division, Courbevoie, France
² Laboratoire de Physique des Interfaces et des Couches Minces (UMR 7647 CNRS), École Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau, France

^a e-mail: antoine.salomon@total.com

Received: 26 July 2011
Accepted: 11 April 2012
Published online: 12 July 2012

Abstract

We report on silicon heterojunction solar cells using textured aluminum doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) as a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) instead of flat indium tin oxide. Double side silicon heterojunction solar cell were fabricated by radio frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition on high life time N-type float zone crystalline silicon wafers. On both sides of these cells we have deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering ZnO:Al layers of thickness ranging from 800 nm to 1400 nm. These TCO layers were then textured by dipping the samples in a 0.5% hydrochloric acid. External quantum efficiency as well as I-V under 1 sun illumination measurements showed an increase of the current for the cells using textured ZnO:Al. The cells were then annealed at 150 °C, 175 °C and 200 °C during 30 min in ambient atmosphere and characterized at each annealing step. The results show that annealing has no impact on the open circuit voltage of the devices but that up to a 175 °C it enhances their short circuit current, consistent with an overall enhancement of their spectral response. Our results suggest that ZnO:Al is a promising material to increase the short circuit current (J_sc) while avoiding texturing the c-Si substrate.