Development of highly efficient thin film silicon solar cells on texture-etched zinc oxide-coated glass substrates

ZnO films prepared by magnetron sputtering on glass substrates and textured by postdeposition chemical etching are applied as substrates for p-i-n sol ar cells. Using both rf and de sputtering, similar surface textures can be achieved upon etching. Excellent light trapping is demonstrated by high qua ntum efficiencies at long wavelengths for microcrystalline silicon solar ce lls. Applying an optimized microcrystalline/amorphous p-layer design, stack ed solar cells with amorphous silicon top cells yield similarly high stabil ized efficiencies on ZnO as on state-of-the-art SnO2 (9.7% for a-Si/a-Si). The efficiencies are significantly higher than on SnO2-coated float glass a s used for module production. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights res erved.