Study of InAlN thin films deposited on silicon, ITO/PET, and ITO/GLASS substrates at room temperature for its possible use in solar cells

Abstract

The semiconductor material of ternary alloy of Indium and Aluminum nitride (In_xAl_1-xN) has interesting properties for potential optoelectronic applications and solar cells as well. In the present research, layers of In_0.63Al_0.37 N were synthesized using the DC reactive sputtering magnetron technique, on p-type silicon substrates (100), ITO/PET, and ITO/Glass. The reason why an intermediate layer of ITO was placed on the PET and Glass substrates is that possibly in an InAlN thin-layer solar cell, the ITO would fulfill the role of Conductive Transparent Oxide (CTO). This CTO would be located between the window layer and the transparent substrate. On the other hand, in the case of a hetero-union solar cell, InAlN-n would be located on the Si-p material, in order to form the p–n junction. Therefore, the present work allowed us to study subsystems in which the InAlN would be part of the window layer in three different types of solar cells.