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Investigation of the stability of boron‐doped zinc oxide films grown by low‐pressure chemical vapor deposition
Author(s) -
Zhu H.,
Feng Y.,
Zhang L.,
Lai B.,
He T.,
Liu D.,
Wang Y.,
Yin J.,
Ma Y.,
Huang Y.,
Jia H.,
Mai Y.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201127746
Subject(s) - materials science , doping , chemical vapor deposition , boron , transparent conducting film , degradation (telecommunications) , zinc , thermal stability , thin film , chemical bath deposition , sheet resistance , deposition (geology) , silicon , oxide , chemical engineering , analytical chemistry (journal) , optoelectronics , nanotechnology , metallurgy , layer (electronics) , chemistry , electronic engineering , organic chemistry , paleontology , sediment , engineering , biology
The stability of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films of silicon thin‐film solar cells is important to the device performance. As an important TCO material, the boron‐doped zinc oxide (ZnO:B) films are grown by a low‐pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) technique. The stability of ZnO:B films with different doping levels is systematically investigated through a post‐thermal treatment at temperatures of 300 and 250 °C for different durations. In addition, the variations of optical and electrical properties of ZnO:B films after a damp‐heat treatment are studied as well. It is found that the stability of the ZnO:B films with a high doping level is better compared to lowly doped ZnO:B films. Moreover, the total transmission (TT) in the near‐infrared (NIR) wavelength range increases with increasing temperature and duration of the thermal treatment. With the increasing damp‐heat exposure duration, the TT in the NIR wavelength range slightly increases while the sheet resistance increases up to three orders of magnitude. Such observations imply a higher degradation of carrier mobility than carrier density. Further, it is found that ZnO:B films, especially those with low doping levels, show an obvious degradation in electrical properties when they are stored in normal room ambient. All these discoveries will be a great help to the practical mass production of solar modules.