The low-cost preparation of pyramid-like texture ZnO thin films and the application as a front electrode in hydrogen amorphous silicon solar cells

The pyramid-like texture ZnO thin films were usually synthesized by MOCVD or etching the as-prepared RF magnetron sputtering films, and the expensive equipment cost and uncontrollable acid etching, respectively are two main disadvantages both the MOCVD and RF magnetron sputtered. In this paper, the pyramid-like texture ZnO thin films were prepared through a low-cost two-step process, firstly, a seed ZnO:Al layer was coated on the quartz substrates by sol-gel method and subsequently a ZnO thin film was fabricated by RF magnetron sputtered. It is shown from the XRD and SEM results that the ZnO thin film has (101) preferential orientation with a pyramid-like texture. According to the measurement results of ZnO films' resistivity and UV-Visible transmission spectra, the lower resistivity of 10 -3 Ω•cm and optical transmission of higher than 80 % were obtained for these ZnO films. It has shown that the pyramid-like ZnO thin film is a potential transparent conductive film used in amorphous silicon solar cell for front electrode, and the cell performance is comparable advantages for that of ITO conductive film.