Optimisation of Spray Deposited SnO 2 Thin Film for Solar Cell Fabrication

The use of conducting tin-oxide (SnO 2 ) films for fabrication of  solar cell is becoming increasingly important because of reasonably high efficiency and ease in fabrication. The role of the thin-oxide film is very critical for high efficiency. Resistivity, thickness and transmittance of the film should be of correct order. The most favourable conditions for fabrication of SnO 2 layer with low resistivity and high transmittance is reported in this paper. Effect of doping and annealing on these properties has also been studied. It is observed that doping with antimony gives better layer with sheet resistivity of approximately 60 ohm/square (Ω/◊) and transmittance of the order of 80%. Annealing in air and vacuum shows a decrease in resistivity while it has negligible effect on its transmittance. Attempts have also been made to fabricate Sn 2 /Si solar cell with the present set up, and efforts are being made to optimize its performance.