LAUSR

In this work, we present the effects of the Al2O3:ZnO ratio on the optical and electrical properties of aluminum doped ZnO (AZO) layers deposited by atomic layer deposition, along with AZO application as the anti-reflective coating (ARC) layer and in heterojunction configurations. Here, we report complex refractive indices for AZO layers with different numbers of aluminum atomic cycles (ZnO:Al2O3 = 1:0, 39:1, 19:1, and 9:1) and we confirm their validity by fitting models to experimental data. Furthermore, the most conductive layer (ZnO:Al2O3 = 19:1, conductivity ∼4.6 mΩ cm) is used to fabricate AZO/n+/p-Si thin film solar cells and AZO/p-Si heterojunction devices. The impact of the AZO layer on the photovoltaic properties of these devices is studied by different characterization techniques, resulting in the extraction of recombination and energy band parameters related to the AZO layer. Our results confirm that AZO 19:1 can be used as a low cost and effective conductive ARC layer for solar cells. However,...