Spray Pyrolysis of ZnO:In: Characterization of Growth Mechanism and Interface Analysis on p-Type GaAs and n-Type Si Semiconductor Materials.

Sprayed transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) are an interesting alternative to sputtered TCOs for many applications due to the possible high throughput and a simple, atmospheric pressure process of spray deposition. In this work, the growth mechanism of sprayed ZnO:In was analyzed by transmission Kikuchi diffraction (TKD) analysis of the thin film's crystal orientation, which shows a preferred orientation of the growing grains and thus proves that the deposition occurs from the gas phase. It was observed that with increasing thickness of the layer, the average grain size increases and the measured resistivity significantly reduces to ≈5-6 × 10 Ω cm for layers of >500 nm thickness.

Atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition of 3C-SiC for silicon thin-film solar cells on various substrates.

The production of crystalline silicon thin-film solar cells on cost effective ceramic substrates depends on a highly reliable diffusion barrier to separate the light absorbing layers from the substrate. Ideally this intermediate layer should be deposited with cost effective techniques, be conductive and should feature optical confinement. Furthermore the intermediate layer should withstand high temperatures and harsh chemical environments like they occur during solar cell processing.