Transparent Conductive Oxides. Part II. Specific Focus on ITO, ZnO-AZO, SnO2-FTO Families for Photovoltaics Applications

Abstract

This contribution is the second part of a presentation of transparent conductive oxides, TCO. After a general overview in the first publication of properties and applications of TCO related to the type of oxide and dopant, the growth techniques and the temperature, we focus in the current one on three families of TCO used as transparent electrodes in photovoltaic, PV, cells and modules. Indeed, new generations of solar cells need optimizing TCO with improved conductivity and transparency depending on substrate, type of PV cells, and conditions of used. Thus, ITO, ZnO-AZO, and SnO2-FTO TCO families are considered. ITO presents the best combination of electrical and optical properties but TCO based on the two other families are challenging in many photovoltaic applications for obtaining low cost and environmental friendly electrodes with comparable performances. Due to the high number of publications on TCO for PV applications, this contribution does not claim to be exhaustive but makes it possible to summarize the main information concerning these materials by approaching them in a common methodology.