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Tuning work function and surface-modified AZO films on FTO substrate to improve the efficiency of thin-film silicon solar cells

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Abstract

Light trapping plays a critical role in improving the current density of thin-film silicon solar cells. However, commercial fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates have limitations in enhancing current density in a specific wavelength range due to weak haze values in the long wavelength range, particularly for amorphous or microcrystalline silicon absorber layers. This problem may be caused by damage from hydrogen plasma during the deposition of hydrogenated silicon. To address this issue, a sputtered AZO film is used as a protective layer on the FTO substrate, enhancing light scattering in the near-infrared region. After optimizing the target angle (47.5 degrees) and thickness (60.9 nm) of the AZO film, thin-film silicon solar cells based on an amorphous silicon layer achieved a current density of 15.31 mA/cm2 compared to 14.22 mA/cm2 for the FTO substrate. The efficiency also improved to 9.63% as the fill factor increased to 70.62%.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This research was supported by Korea Initiative for fostering University of Research and Innovation Program of the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. 2021M3H1A104892211, No. 2021R1A2C2012649).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. AI-Superconvergence KIURI Translational Research Center, School of Medicine, Ajou University, Suwon, 16499, Korea

    Hyeong Gi Park

  2. Department of Energy Systems Research, Ajou University, Suwon, 16499, Korea

    Jae-Hyun Lee

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ajou University, Suwon, 16499, Korea

    Jae-Hyun Lee

  4. College of Information and Communication Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, 16419, Korea

    Junsin Yi

Authors
  1. Hyeong Gi Park
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  2. Jae-Hyun Lee
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  3. Junsin Yi
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by HGP. The first draft of the manuscript was written by HGP and all authors commented on the previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hyeong Gi Park.

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Park, H.G., Lee, JH. & Yi, J. Tuning work function and surface-modified AZO films on FTO substrate to improve the efficiency of thin-film silicon solar cells. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 1034 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-10438-2

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