Modelling of sputtered and electron-beam evaporated multi-layer ITO/InP solar cells based on efficiency studies

摘要

With an energy gap of 1.34 eV, indium phosphide (InP) is an ideal material for solar energy conversion. Much work has been carried out on sputtered indium-tin-oxide (IOT)/InP solar cells but modeling of this structure has long been the subject of debate. The double-layer structure used in this work was originally devised to minimise the surface degradation of InP when exposed to normal heating steps during the fabrication process due to the low congruent temperature of InP. We deposited a thin protective layer of either ITO or indium-tin to protect the front surface of the InP before any heating stages took place. A second layer, ITO, was then deposited to complete the junction. Variation of film deposition conditions, thicknesses and annealing steps worked to improve device performances as well as provide insight into junction mechanisms.