Hole Selective Contacts: A Brief Overview

Carrier selective solar cell structure has allured curiosity of photovoltaic researchers due to the use of wide band gap transition metal oxide (TMO). Distinctive p/n-type character, broad range of work functions (2 to 7 eV) and risk free fabrication of TMO has evolved new concept of heterojunction intrinsic thin layer (HIT) solar cell employing carrier selective layers such as $MoO_x$, $WO_x$, $V_2O_5$ and $TiO_2$ replacing the doped a-Si layers on either front side or back side. The p/n-doped hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) layers are deposited by Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD), which includes the flammable and toxic boron/phosphorous gas precursors. Due to this, carrier selective TMO is gaining popularity as analternative risk-free material in place of conventional a-Si:H. In this work hole selective materials such as $MoO_x$, $WO_x$ and $V_2O_5$has been investigated. Recently $MoO_x$, $WO_x$ & $V_2O_5$ hetero-structures showed conversion efficiency of 22.5%, 12.6% & 15.7% respectively at temperature below $200^{\circ}C$. In this work a concise review on few important aspects of the hole selective material solar cell such as historical developments, device structure, fabrication, factors effecting cell performance and dependency on temperature has been reported.