Characterization of Morphology Controlled Fluorine-doped SnO2 Thin Films

Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO), which is commonly used in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), is a promising material of transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) because of advantages such as high chemical stability, high resistance, high optical transparency (>80% at 550nm), and low electrical resistivity (${\sim}10-4{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$). Especially, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been actively studied since Gratzel's research group required FTO substrate as a charge collector. When FTO substrates are used in DSSCs, photo-injected electrons may experience recombination at interface between dye-bonded semiconductor oxides ($TiO_2$) on FTO substrate and the electrolyte. To solve these problems, one is that because recombination at FTO substrate cannot be neglected, thin $TiO_2$ layer on FTO substrate as a blocking layer was introduced. The other is to control the morphology of surface on FTO substrate to reduce a loss of electrons. The structural, electrical, and optical characteristics of morphology controlled-FTO thin films as TCO materials were analyzed by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Hall Effect Measurement, and UV spectrophotometer. The performance of DSSCs fabricated with morphology controlled FTO substrates was performed using Power Conversion Efficiency (PCE). We will discuss these results in detail in Conference.