Source Material Design for Realizing >50% Indium-Saving Transparent Electrode toward Sustainable Development of Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

IF 8.3 2区材料科学 Q1 MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces Pub Date : 2025-01-03 DOI:10.1021/acsami.4c15684

Zhongyu Gao, Can Han, Jiejun Pan, Jiajun Shen, Zhibin Liu, Kaixuan Chen, Zhikai Yi, Yong Zhang, Zhong Yu, Xianjie Zhou, Pingqi Gao

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Abstract

Indium (In) reduction is a hot topic in transparent conductive oxide (TCO) research. So far, most strategies have been focused on reducing the layer thickness of In-based TCO films and exploring In-free TCOs. However, no promising industrial solution has been obtained yet. In our work, we adopt the emerging reactive plasma deposition (RPD) approach and provide our In-reduced solution by directly reducing the In content from the source material. We designed the indium zinc oxide (IZO) target with a composition of Zn₃In₂O₆ (i.e., (ZnO)₃·In₂O₃). Density functional theory (DFT) calculation shows that the introduction of a large amount of ZnO significantly perturbs the conduction band of the In₂O₃ host, resulting in a limitation of exploring high-mobility IZO films. For TCOs used in solar cell application, low resistivity with high carrier mobility is required. Via RPD process optimization, we obtained the minimal resistivity value of 6.08 × 10^–4 Ω·cm, which is comparable to our lab-standard tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) film. The corresponding electron mobility and carrier concentration are 31 cm² V^–1 s^–1 and 3.37 × 10²⁰ cm^–3, respectively. Our IZO film is in an amorphous state. The optical band gap is ∼3.6 eV. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data show that the film composition is In:Zn:O = 21.60:28.75:49.65 (at. %). Damp heat tests show strong stability of our IZO film, and no aging effects have been observed. Furthermore, we demonstrated wafer-scale silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells with IZO films. As compared with our reference hydrogenated cerium-doped indium oxide (ICO)-based solar cells, the IZO-based devices show even higher fill factor parameters. Our amorphous state stable In-reduced IZO film could find versatile application in the sustainable development of temperature-sensitive devices such as SHJ and perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells, as well as flexible OLEDs.

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面向硅异质结太阳能电池可持续发展的>50%省铟透明电极源材料设计

铟还原是透明导电氧化物（TCO）研究的热点。到目前为止，大多数策略都集中在减小in基TCO薄膜的层厚和探索无in的TCO上。然而，目前还没有很有前景的工业解决方案。在我们的工作中，我们采用了新兴的反应等离子体沉积（RPD）方法，并通过直接降低源材料中的In含量来提供我们的In还原溶液。我们设计了以Zn3In2O6（即（ZnO）3·In2O3）为主要成分的氧化铟锌靶材。密度泛函理论（DFT）计算表明，大量ZnO的引入显著干扰了In2O3基体的导带，限制了探索高迁移率的IZO薄膜。对于用于太阳能电池的tco，需要具有高载流子迁移率的低电阻率。通过RPD工艺优化，我们得到的最小电阻率值为6.08 × 10-4 Ω·cm，与我们的实验室标准掺杂锡氧化铟（ITO）薄膜相当。相应的电子迁移率和载流子浓度分别为31 cm2 V-1 s-1和3.37 × 1020 cm-3。我们的IZO薄膜处于无定形状态。光学带隙为~ 3.6 eV。x射线光电子能谱（XPS）数据表明，薄膜成分为In:Zn:O = 21.60:28: 75:49.65。%)。湿热试验表明，我们的IZO薄膜稳定性强，没有观察到老化效应。此外，我们还展示了具有IZO薄膜的晶圆级硅异质结（SHJ）太阳能电池。与我们的参考氢化铈掺杂氧化铟（ICO）太阳能电池相比，基于ICO的器件显示出更高的填充因子参数。我们的非晶态稳定的in -reduced IZO薄膜可以在温度敏感器件（如SHJ和钙钛矿/硅串联太阳能电池）以及柔性oled的可持续发展中找到广泛的应用。

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来源期刊

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 工程技术-材料科学：综合

CiteScore

16.00

自引率

6.30%

发文量

4978

审稿时长

1.8 months

期刊介绍： ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces is a leading interdisciplinary journal that brings together chemists, engineers, physicists, and biologists to explore the development and utilization of newly-discovered materials and interfacial processes for specific applications. Our journal has experienced remarkable growth since its establishment in 2009, both in terms of the number of articles published and the impact of the research showcased. We are proud to foster a truly global community, with the majority of published articles originating from outside the United States, reflecting the rapid growth of applied research worldwide.