Structural optical and electrical properties of a transparent conductive ITO/Al–Ag/ITO multilayer contact

• Aliyu Kabiru Isiyaku,
• Ahmad Hadi Ali and
• Nafarizal Nayan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 695–702, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.57

• for transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films due to its good optical and electrical properties. Improving the optoelectronic properties of ITO films with reduced thickness is crucial and quite challenging. ITO-based multilayer films with an aluminium–silver (Al–Ag) interlayer (ITO/Al–Ag/ITO) and a

Rapid thermal annealing for high-quality ITO thin films deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering

• Petronela Prepelita,
• Ionel Stavarache,
• Doina Craciun,
• Florin Garoi,
• Catalin Negrila,
• Beatrice Gabriela Sbarcea and
• Valentin Craciun

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1511–1522, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.149

• goal is to obtain high-performance solar cells [6][9][10] but at a cost as low as possible. ITO is an attractive material because it exhibits excellent properties as a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) material that can be tuned during deposition in order to obtain materials for specific applications

Geometrical optimisation of core–shell nanowire arrays for enhanced absorption in thin crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells

• Robin Vismara,
• Olindo Isabella,
• Andrea Ingenito,
• Fai Tong Si and
• Miro Zeman

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 322–331, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.31

• silicon bulk has a thickness of only 2 μm, to better highlight the effect of the presence of nanowires. At the front side, a stack of a-Si:H (thickness of 5 nm) and p-type nc-SiOx:H (5 nm) forms the hole-selective contact, followed by In2O3:H (IOH, 40 nm) in the role of the front transparent conductive

• oxide (TCO). The three layers uniformly coat both the nanowires and the exposed portion of the bulk. At the back side, the negative contact consists of another TCO, ZnO:Ga (GZO, 100 nm) [47][54], and silver (300 nm). There are a few differences between the manufactured solar cells and the model employed

Optimization of Mo/Cr bilayer back contacts for thin-film solar cells

• Nima Khoshsirat,
• Fawad Ali,
• Vincent Tiing Tiong,
• Mojtaba Amjadipour,
• Hongxia Wang,
• Mahnaz Shafiei and
• Nunzio Motta

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2700–2707, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.252

• a two-step process of sulfurization of stacked metallic layers of Cu/Sn/Zn. Then a 60 nm CdS buffer layer was deposited using chemical bath deposition (CBD). This was followed by sputtering of a 30 nm ZnO layer and a 350 nm ITO layer as transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layers. As the last step, a

Performance analysis of rigorous coupled-wave analysis and its integration in a coupled modeling approach for optical simulation of complete heterojunction silicon solar cells

• Ziga Lokar,
• Benjamin Lipovsek,
• Marko Topic and
• Janez Krc

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2018, 9, 2315–2329, doi:10.3762/bjnano.9.216

• (EVA) encapsulation (Figure 3). The front of the basic solar cell structure consists of transparent conductive oxide (e.g., indium tin oxide (ITO)), a thin p-doped and intrinsic amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) layer for electrical passivation, a slightly n-doped crystalline Si (c-Si) wafer (absorber), and

Study of the surface properties of ZnO nanocolumns used for thin-film solar cells

• Neda Neykova,
• Jiri Stuchlik,
• Karel Hruska,
• Ales Poruba,
• Zdenek Remes and
• Ognen Pop-Georgievski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2017, 8, 446–451, doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.48

• -Si) solar cells, used for mass production, is composed of a transparent conductive oxide with roughness at the nanoscale on the front (TCO), e.g., tin oxide (SnO2) or zinc oxide (ZnO), followed by p–i–n Si layers (amorphous and/or nanocrystalline) in the cell and a back reflector [1][2]. In such a

Dependence of lattice strain relaxation, absorbance, and sheet resistance on thickness in textured ZnO@B transparent conductive oxide for thin-film solar cell applications

• Kuang-Yang Kou,
• Yu-En Huang,
• Chien-Hsun Chen and
• Shih-Wei Feng

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 75–80, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.9

• Research Labs, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu, Taiwan 10.3762/bjnano.7.9 Abstract The interplay of surface texture, strain relaxation, absorbance, grain size, and sheet resistance in textured, boron-doped ZnO (ZnO@B), transparent conductive oxide (TCO) materials of different thicknesses

• oxide; textured ZnO; Introduction Thin-film solar cells require a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) to allow light to reach the absorber layers and create the electrical current. Due to its superior characteristics, including a wide band gap, high dielectric constant, high exciton binding energy (60

• resistance. These experimental results reveal the optical and material characteristics of the TCO layer, which could be useful for enhancing the performance of solar cells through an optimized TCO layer. Keywords: absorbance; low-pressure chemical vapor deposition; strain relaxation; transparent conductive

Experimental determination of the light-trapping-induced absorption enhancement factor in DSSC photoanodes

• Serena Gagliardi and
• Mauro Falconieri

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 886–892, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.91

• point to determine one of the key photovoltaic parameters of a device. In DSSCs, light harvesting occurs at the photoanode, which is comprised of a monolayer of dye adsorbed onto a mesoporous titania film deposited onto a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer. The absorption spectrum of the dye

Morphology control of zinc oxide films via polysaccharide-mediated, low temperature, chemical bath deposition

• Florian Waltz,
• Hans-Christoph Schwarz,
• Andreas M. Schneider,
• Stefanie Eiden and
• Peter Behrens

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 799–808, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.83

• measurements of the electrical conductivity. Keywords: chemical bath deposition; hyaluronic acid; polysaccharide; transparent conductive oxide; zinc oxide; Introduction Zinc oxide is a unique material with a number of interesting properties such as piezo- and pyro-electricity [1][2], high optical

• transparency [3], catalytic activity [4][5], and chemical sensing [6][7][8]. It is also one of the most promising candidates for the replacement of indium tin oxide (ITO) in transparent conductive oxide (TCO) applications [9][10]. Hence, ZnO films are a key research area in industry as well as in academia with

Evolution of microstructure and related optical properties of ZnO grown by atomic layer deposition

• Adib Abou Chaaya,
• Roman Viter,
• Mikhael Bechelany,
• Zanda Alute,
• Donats Erts,
• Anastasiya Zalesskaya,
• Kristaps Kovalevskis,
• Vincent Rouessac,
• Valentyn Smyntyna and
• Philippe Miele

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 690–698, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.78

• ultrathin ZnO films in optical sensors and biosensors. Keywords: atomic layer deposition; optical properties; photoluminescence; thin films; ZnO; Introduction Zinc oxide (ZnO) is an n-type semiconductor and a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) with excellent optoelectronic properties, a wide band gap