Growth and properties of zinc oxide films prepared by chemical vapor deposition and their applications in solar energy utilization
Abstract
Transparent and conducting thin ZnO films have been prepared by
chemical vapour deposition method. The growth parameters have been
optimized and optical and electrical properties of the films studied.
The effects of doping and annealing on the properties of as-grown
films have been investigated. The direct and indirect bandgap values
of these films were found to be 3.28eV and 3.07eV respectively. Films
with carrier concentration of the order 10-21 cm-3
, sheet resistance of
2500 /0 and a transmission of 80% in the visible region of the
spectrum were prepared.
ZnO / SiO2 / p-Si solar cells were
fabricated which yielded a
short circuit current density of 6.2nA/cm2, a fill factor of 0.25, an
open circuit voltage of 202mV ar~ an efficiency of 0.4%. A large
interfacial layer and high series resistance could be the main factors
that contributed to the low efficiency of these cells.
Citation
Master of SciencePublisher
University of Nairobi