Novel Deposition Technique of ZnO:Al Transparent Conduction Oxide Layer on Chemically Etched Glass Substrates for High-haze Textured Surface

For high performance thin film solar cells, texturing surface, enhancing the optical absorptionpath, is pretty important. Textured ZnO:Al transparent oxide layer of high haze is commonly used in Si thin film solar cells. In this paper, novel deposition method for aluminum doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) on glass substrates is presented to improve the haze property. The broccoli structure of ZnO:Al layer was formed on chemically etched glass substrates, which showed high haze value on a wide wavelength range.The etching condition of the glass substrates can change not only the haze values of the ZnO:Al of in-situ growth but alsothe electrical and optical properties of the deposited ZnO:Al films.The etching mechanism of the glass substrate affecting on the surface morphology of the glass will be discussed, which resulted in variation of texture of ZnO:Al layer. The optical properties of substrate morphology were also analyzed with EDS and FTIR results. As a result, the high haze value of 85.4% was obtained in the wavelength range of 300 nm to 1100 nm. Furthermore, low sheet resistance of about 5~18 ohm/sq was achieved for different surface morphologies of the ZnO:Al films.