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TCO/Ag/TCO transparent electrodes for solar cells application

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Abstract

Among transparent electrodes, transparent conductive oxides (TCO)/metal/TCO structures can achieve optical and electrical performances comparable to, or better than, single TCO layers and very thin metallic films. In this work, we report on thin multilayers based on aluminum zinc oxide (AZO), indium tin oxide (ITO) and Ag deposited by RF magnetron sputtering on soda lime glass at room temperature. The TCO/Ag/TCO structures with thicknesses of about 50/10/50 nm were deposited with all combinations of AZO and ITO as top and bottom layers. While the electrical conductivity is dominated by the Ag intralayer irrespective of the TCO nature, the optical transmissions show a dependence on the nature of the top and bottom TCOs, mainly due to the change in the reflectivity of the multilayers. Structural, electrical and optical properties are studied to optimize the structure for very thin transparent electrodes suitable for photovoltaic applications.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Carmelo Percolla for technical assistance. One of the author, S. Boscarino, acknowledges the financial support by the MIUR project PON01_01725.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Catania, via S. Sofia 64, 95123, Catania, Italy

    S. Boscarino, F. Simone & A. Terrasi

  2. MATIS, CNR-IMM, via S. Sofia 64, 95123, Catania, Italy

    S. Boscarino, I. Crupi, S. Mirabella & A. Terrasi

Authors
  1. S. Boscarino
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  2. I. Crupi
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  3. S. Mirabella
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  4. F. Simone
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  5. A. Terrasi
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Correspondence to S. Boscarino.

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Boscarino, S., Crupi, I., Mirabella, S. et al. TCO/Ag/TCO transparent electrodes for solar cells application. Appl. Phys. A 116, 1287–1291 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-014-8222-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-014-8222-9

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