Surface modification of high haze front transparent conductive oxide for silicon thin film solar cell

The aluminium-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) films grown by sputtering method were etched to improve the light scattering property. The high haze value (diffuse transmission to total transmission) of above 40% at 850nm wavelength was obtained by the increase of etching time. But the resistance of film increased and a lot of pin holes were created due to the over etch for high haze. In order to solve these problems, the additional ZnO layer was deposited on etched ZnO:Al film without sacrifice of high haze. This method was able to compensate the deteriorated properties without the change of optical properties. Amorphous based silicon solar cells showed the improvement of photovoltaic performances by the additional deposition.