Atomic layer deposition of aluminum-doped zinc oxide films for the light harvesting enhancement of a nanostructured silicon solar cell

Anodic-aluminum-oxide (AAO) template lithography and atomic layer deposition (ALD) antireflection coating techniques have often been applied for the fabrication of wide-angle antireflection structures on silicon solar cells. In this study, an AAO template was fabricated as a mask to block the high density plasma dry etching from the crystalline silicon to form nanostructures on the surface of the crystalline silicon wafer. Then, a 55-nm-thick aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) film was deposited on the silicon nanostructures using the ALD method. The results show that the application of a nanostructured AZO film can decrease the average reflectivity of the crystalline silicon to 0.83% in the wavelength range from 400 to 850 nm for an incident angle of 8°. The conversion efficiency of the nanostructured silicon solar cell can be enhanced from 6.93% to 8.37%.