• Kido, Kazuki
• Koitabashi, Ryota
• Toko, Kaoru
• Mesuda, Masami
• Takenaka, Haruki
• Hasebe, Hayato

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Semiconducting BaSi<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> has attractive features for thin-film solar cell applications. In this study, we investigated the potential of NiO as a hole transport layer in NiO/BaSi<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> heterojunction solar cells both by simulation and by experiment. To find deposition conditions to form NiO layers, a NiO target was sputtered on glass substrates under various O<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>-to-Ar gas flow ratios. The hole concentration of the NiO films was controlled in the range 10<jats:sup>17</jats:sup>–10<jats:sup>21 </jats:sup>cm<jats:sup>−3</jats:sup> mainly by the substrate temperature during deposition. After that, NiO/BaSi<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> heterojunction solar cells were designed using a one-dimensional simulation software (AFORS-HET v2.5). The conversion efficiency exceeded 16% for 400 nm thick n-BaSi<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> absorption layers. We actually formed NiO/BaSi<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> heterojunction solar cells on glass substrates by radio-frequency sputtering, and demonstrated that the carriers photogenerated in the BaSi<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> films contributed to the internal quantum efficiency spectrum at wavelengths shorter than approximately 900 nm, corresponding to the band gap of BaSi<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>.</jats:p>

Topics

• Deposition
• experiment
• simulation
• glass
• reactive
• glass
• one-dimensional