Development of aluminum-doped ZnO films for a-Si:H/μc-Si:H solar cell applications

This study deals with the optimization of direct current（DC） sputtered aluminum-doped zinc oxide （AZO） thin films and their incorporation into a-Si：H/μc-Si：H tandem junction thin film solar cells aiming for high conversion efficiency.Electrical and optical properties of AZO films,i.e.mobility,carrier density,resistivity, and transmittance,were comprehensively characterized and analyzed by varying sputtering deposition conditions, including chamber pressure,substrate temperature,and sputtering power.The correlations between sputtering processes and AZO thin film properties were first investigated.Then,the AZO films were textured by diluted hydrochloric acid wet etching.Through optimization of deposition and texturing processes,AZO films yield excellent electrical and optical properties with a high transmittance above 81%over the 380-1100 nm wavelength range,lowsheet resistance of 11Ω/□and high haze ratio of 41.3%.In preliminary experiments,the AZO films were applied to a-Si：H/μc-Si：H tandem thin film solar cells as front contact electrodes,resulting in an initial conversion efficiency of 12.5%with good current matching between subcells.

Preparation of Al-doped ZnO sputter target by hot pressing

Al-doped ZnO （AZO） target was prepared by hot pressing using ZnO and Al2O3 powder in mass ratio of 98：2.The effects of hot pressing conditions including temperature,pressure and preserving time on relative density were investigated.Pore evolution and phase structure change during densification process were studied.The results show that AZO target with super high relative density of 99% was prepared by two-stage hot pressing method under pressure of 35MPa,temperature of 1 050℃ and 1 150℃ with preserving time of 1 h,respectively.At temperature around 1 050℃,the number of isolated pore wasminimum.At temperature lower than 900℃,there existed Al2O3 phase.At temperature higher than 1 000℃,ZnAl2O4 phase was generated and its content was increased with temperature increasing.Hot pressing method had the advantage over pressureless sintering that the content of ZnAl2O4 was lower and sintering temperature could be also lower.With increasing the hot pressing temperature and preserving time,the electric resistivity of AZO target decreased greatly.A low resistivity of 3 10-3 cm was achieved under the temperature of 1 100℃,pressure of 35MPa and preserving time of 10 h.

Influence of Zr(50)Cu(50) thin film metallic glass as buffer layer on the structural and optoelectrical properties of AZO films

Aluminum-doped ZnO(AZO) thin films with thin film metallic glass of Zr(50)Cu(50) as buffer are prepared on glass substrates by the pulsed laser deposition. The influence of buffer thickness and substrate temperature on structural, optical, and electrical properties of AZO thin film are investigated. Increasing the thickness of buffer layer and substrate temperature can both promote the transformation of AZO from amorphous to crystalline structure, while they show(100)and(002) unique preferential orientations, respectively. After inserting Zr(50)Cu(50) layer between the glass substrate and AZO film, the sheet resistance and visible transmittance decrease, but the infrared transmittance increases. With substrate temperature increasing from 25℃ to 520℃, the sheet resistance of AZO(100 nm)/Zr(50)Cu(50)(4 nm) film first increases and then decreases, and the infrared transmittance is improved. The AZO(100 nm)/Zr(50)Cu(50)(4 nm) film deposited at a substrate temperature of 360℃ exhibits a low sheet resistance of 26.7 ?/, high transmittance of 82.1% in the visible light region, 81.6% in near-infrared region, and low surface roughness of 0.85 nm, which are useful properties for their potential applications in tandem solar cell and infrared technology.

Highly stable Al-doped ZnO by ligand-free synthesis as general thickness-insensitive interlayers for organic solar cells

Highly conductive and dispersible Al-doped ZnO(AZO) nanoparticles(NPs) have been successfully prepared by ligand-free colloidal synthesis at low temperature and stabilization by surfactant-aid including ethanolamine(EA), ethylenediamine(EDA),diethylenetriamine(DETA) and triethylenetetramine(TETA). Due to the strong intermolecular hydrogen-bonding interactions between AZO NPs and the amino groups from surfactants, the inevitable aggregation was suppressed and the surface defect sites were passivated obviously. The existence of electron transfer from the nitrogen of the amino groups to the zinc of AZO,led to a dramatic increase in electrical conductivity. A homogeneous current intensity value up to ~2200 pA for AZO tread by DETA was characterized by conductive atomic force microscopy(C-AFM), which was more superior than that of the reported sol-gel synthesized AZO with the assistance of EA surfactant(refer to 170.7 pA). Furthermore, non-fullerenes solar cells based on PBDB-T:ITIC with AZO-DETA(80 nm) yielded a best device efficiency of 10.7% and kept up prominent PCE exceeding 10%even with more thicker interlayer(95 nm).

Direct synthesis of large-area Al-doped graphene by chemical vapor deposition:Advancing the substitutionally doped graphene family

Graphene doping continues to gather momentum because it enables graphene properties to be tuned,thereby affording new properties to,improve the performance of,and expand the application potential of graphene.Graphene can be chemically doped using various methods such as surface functionalization,hybrid composites(e.g.,nanoparticle decoration),and substitution doping,wherein C atoms are replaced by foreign ones in the graphene lattice.Theoretical works have predicted that graphene could be substitutionally doped by aluminum(Al)atoms,which could hold promise for exciting applications,including hydrogen storage and evolution,and supercapacitors.Other theoretical predictions suggest that Al substitutionally doped graphene(AIG)could serve as a material for gas sensors and the catalytic decomposition of undesirable materials.However,fabricating Al substitutionally doped graphene has proven challenging until now.Herein,we demonstrate how controlled-flow chemical vapor deposition(CVD)implementing a simple solid precursor can yield high-quality and large-area monolayer AIG,and this synthesis is unequivocally confirmed using various characterization methods including local electron energy-loss spectroscopy(EELS).Detailed high-resolution transmission electron microscopy(HRTEM)shows numerous bonding configurations between the Al atoms and the graphene lattice,some of which are not theoretically predicted.Furthermore,the produced AIG shows a CO_(2) capturability superior to those of other substitutionally doped graphenes.

Characteristics of atomic layer deposited transparent aluminumdoped zinc oxide thin films at low temperature

Various aluminum-doped zinc oxide （AZO） films were prepared on Si substrate by atomic layer de- position （ALD） at 100 ℃. The effect of the composition of AZO films on their electrical, optical characteristics, structural property and surface topography was investi- gated. The appearance of electrical resistivity shows their semiconducing properties. In most of the visible light band, all the AZO films present transparency of more than 80 %. A1 doping suppresses the AZO film crystallization. When the A1 doping concentration increases up to 3.95 at%, the AZO film has some small multicrystal grains with random orientation. A1 doping improves the roughness of i-ZnO film. The root mean square （RMS） roughness of samples prepared by ALD is much smaller than that pre- pared by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering reported.

Lossy mode resonance-based uniform core tapered fiber optic sensor for sensitivity enhancement

A lossy mode resonance(LMR)-supported fiber optic sensor in which a uniform fiber core is placed among two identical tapered regions, is investigated numerically. Indium tin oxide(ITO)and aluminum-doped zinc oxide(AZO) are considered as LMR active materials used to excite several lossy modes and gold and silver are used as surface plasmon resonance(SPR) active materials. In this probe design, a central uniform core coated with ITO/AZO is the active sensing region, whereas tapered regions are meant for bringing the incident angle close to the critical angle. The sensitivity of the present fiber optic bio-sensor is evaluated for first two LMRs utilizing both ITO and AZO separately, along with its variation with the taper ratio(TR). For ITO, the maximum sensitivity values are observed to be 18.425 μm RIU^(-1)(refractive index unit)and 0.825 μm RIU^(-1), corresponding to the first and second LMRs, respectively, at a TR of 1.6 and for AZO, equivalent values are 0.79 μm RIU^(-1) and 0.35 μm RIU^(-1), respectively, at a TR of2.0. The results illustrate that the first LMR is more sensitive than the second LMR and the ITOcoated probe possesses greater sensitivity than the AZO-coated probe for both LMRs. Similarly,for the fiber optic SPR sensor, the maximum value of sensitivity is 5.6425 μm RIU^(-1), in the case of gold and 5.0615 μm RIU^(-1) in the case of silver, at a TR of 1.6. Hence, the result shows that the sensor with the present fiber optic probe design has around a 3-fold enhancement in sensitivity compared with conventional SPR sensors. This study will have applications in many sensing schemes where the requirement of large sensitivity is vital.