Amorphous ZrOx anti-reflective coating for improved performance of silicon solar cell devices

We report on the synthesis and characterization of an amorphous zirconium oxide (a-ZrOx) thin film as an anti-reflective coating (ARC) for a silicon solar cell. In this work, a low-temperature non-vacuum sol–gel spin-coating method was used to synthesize a-ZrOx at room temperature by dispersing zirconium(IV) acetylacetonate in washing grade ethanol as a solvent. The formation of a-ZrOx complex by UV exposure was intended for potential PV applications. The optical and electronic properties of the synthesized a-ZrOx were characterized by EDAX, FESEM, optical microscopy, FTIR, spectroscopic ellipsometry, UV–visible spectroscopy, AFM, TEM, photoluminescence, I–V measurement, quantum efficiency measurement system, etc. The impact of increased UV exposure on the synthesized film revealed the suitability of amorphous structure for photovoltaic applications. The variation in photovoltaic properties, refractive index (1.4–1.76) at wavelength of 632 nm and roughness ~ (296 pm–720 pm) is attributed to the disparity in structural properties of the film. The use of a-ZrOx as an ARC resulted in improved short-circuit current density (Jsc), open-circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor (FF) which led to the enhanced efficiency from 7.30% to 9.56%. The quantum efficiency measurements showed the pinholes both in the device fabrication and the spin-coated zirconium oxide.