Using chemical wet-etching methods of textured AZO films on a-Si:H solar cells for efficient light trapping

Abstract In this paper, Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films are deposited on glasses substrate by RF magnetron sputtering. The optical, electrical and morphological properties of AZO films textured by wet-etching with different etchants, H 3 PO 4 , HCl, and HNO 3 are studied. It is found that the textured structure could enhance the light scattering and light trapping ability of amorphous silicon solar cells. The textured AZO film etched with HNO 3 exhibits optimized optical properties (T% ≧ 80% over entire wavelength, haze ratio > 40% at 550 nm wavelength) and excellent electrical properties (ρ = 5.86 × 10 −4  Ωcm). Scanning electron microscopy and Atomic force microscopy are used to observe surface morphology and average roughness of each textured AZO films. Finally, the textured AZO films etched by H 3 PO 4 , HCl and HNO 3 were applied to front electrode layer for p–i–n amorphous silicon solar cells. The highest conversion efficiency of amorphous silicon solar cell fabricated on HNO 3 -etched AZO film was 7.08% with open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current density and fill factor of 895 mV, 14.92 mA/cm 2 and 0.56, respectively. It shows a significantly enhancement in the short-circuit current density and conversion efficiency by 16.2% and 20.2%, respectively, compared with the solar cell fabricated on as-grown AZO film.