Application of Room Temperature Sputtered Al-doped Zinc Oxide in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Al-doped Zinc Oxide (AZO) is an attractive substitution of Tin-doped Indium Oxide in silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells due to its low cost and benign nature. In our work room temperature (RT) sputtered AZO has been introduced into SHJ solar cells in view of industrialization and cost reduction. In addition, n type nc-Si:H is employed as window layer to reduce parasitic absorption. The influence of AZO deposition and post-deposition annealing on effective carrier lifetime is studied. A 20.2% cell efficiency with 20 × 20 mm 2 aperture area has been achieved with RT sputtered AZO and n type nc-Si:H layer.