Synthesis and deposition of conductive transparent oxides (TCOs) to be used in the manufacture of high efficiency solar photovoltaic devices

Abstract

Transparent conductive oxides (TCO) are doped metal oxides used in optoelectronic devices such as flat panel displays and photovoltaics. In the present work, zinc oxides are doped with different metals (aluminium, silver, lithium, indium and gallium).These compounds have been synthesized by co-precipitation method starting from different precursors. The obtained powders have been deposited by spin coating technique and further heated in a muffle. During the preparation process, the influence of several parameters has been evaluated, e.g. the number of layers while doing the deposition process or heating cycle. The obtained coatings have been studied by applying X-Ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), UV-visible and IR spectroscopy. Detailed description of each procedure step and discussion of the obtained results have been performed along with the project.