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Tantalum-doped tin oxide transparent conductive thin films were deposited on glass substrates by radio frequency and direct current reactive magnetron co-sputtering methods in an argon and oxygen environment. Optimization of the thin films for photovoltaic applications was performed using a dimensionless figure of merit by combining electrical and transparency properties. The optimized thin film showed a weight-averaged transmittance of 83%, a band gap value of 3.2 eV, resistivity of 5.2 × 10−3 Ω cm, and bulk carrier concentration of 1.2 × 1020 cm−3. The lowest resistivity among all films was 2.1 × 10−3 Ω cm, corresponding to a weight-averaged transmittance of 62%. The optimized deposition condition was carried out by co-sputtering on heated substrates at 270°C. Thin films deposited under this optimized condition were applied for our perovskite solar cells, and demonstrated promising power conversion efficiency.

Aluminum-doped zinc oxide was deposited on silicon and glass substrates by magnetron sputtering methods with various conditions starting from conventional, then to oxygen reactive technique, and finally to cosputtering of aluminum and 2% Al2O3 in ZnO target. The results showed that the optical transmittance of the thin films in the visible range was above 80%. The direct bandgap of the aluminum-doped zinc oxide thin films, depending on the deposition conditions, was estimated to lie in the range between 3.2 eV and 4.2 eV. Good electrical properties with resistivity of about 2.5 × 10−3 Ω cm were also observed when doping more Al using the cosputtering method. Optimization of the synthesis conditions for aluminum-doped zinc oxide thin films was performed using a newly proposed dimensionless figure of merit based on analysis of the efficiency of solar cells. This study highlights that the optimized deposition condition was to cosputter aluminum during a total additional time of 2 min. The results show that such transparent conductive thin films could be applied in future low-cost heterojunction oxide-based solar cells with CuFeO2 delafossite p-type absorber.

One of the interesting forms of cuprous oxide and ferric oxide based materials is CuFeO2 which can be a delafossite-type compound and is a well known p-type semiconductor. This compound makes up an interesting family of materials for technological applications. CuFeO2 thin films recently gained renewed interest for potential applications in solar cell devices especially as absorption layers. One of the interesting facts is that CuFeO2 is made from cheap materials such as copper and iron. In this study, CuFeO2 thin films are intentionally deposited on corning glass and silicon substrates by the radio-frequency and direct current sputtering method with complicated and well developed co-sputtering recipes. The deposition was performed at room temperature which leads to an amorphous phase with extremely low roughness and high density. The films also were annealed at 500°C in 5% H2 in Ar for the passivation. A detailed optical study was performed on these thin films by spectroscopic ellipsometry and by ultra-violet visible near infrared spectroscopy. Depending on sputtering conditions, the direct band gap was extrapolated to be from 1.96 eV to 2.2 eV and 2.92 eV to 2.96 eV and the indirect band gap is about 1.22 eV to 1.42 eV. A good electrical conduction is also observed which is suitable␣for solar cell applications. In future more study on the structural properties will be carried out in order to fully understand these materials.

CH3NH3PbI3 and CH3NH3PbI2Br crystal powders and thin films with chemical formula CH3NH3PbI3−x Br x have been synthesized by reacting methylammonium bromide/iodide with lead iodide. The films were fabricated by a low-temperature solution process using the spin-coating method followed by thermal annealing, which is an effective means for controlling the composition and morphology of the CH3NH3PbI3−x Br x thin films. The resulting perovskite films exhibit good optical absorption and crystalline structure, being promising for potential application as light absorbers in future solar cells.