Effect of high-haze zinc oxide films fabricated on soda-lime glass substrate for thin-film silicon solar cells

We have successfully fabricated zinc oxide (ZnO) films with a very high haze value using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technique by carrying out a unique glass-substrate treatment before ZnO film deposition. Effects of soda-lime glass treatment conditions on the properties of ZnO films were investigated. It was found the larger craters surface and high rms roughness of soda-lime glass could be obtained when the treatment gas pressure was 13 Pa. It was also found that the surface morphology of ZnO films can be modified by adjusting the glass treatment conditions with preserving their good electrical properties. By employing newly developed ZnO film as front TCO films in conventional p-i-n-type a-Si:H single junction solar cells, we obtained an efficiency of 9.87%. Therefore, the obtained ZnO films deposited on etched soda-lime glass have a lot of potentials to be used as the front TCO films in thin-film silicon solar cells.