Recent advances in the transparent conducting ZnO for thin-film Si solar cells

The key challenge for solar-cell development lies in the improvement of power-conversion efficiency and the reduction of fabrication cost. For thin-film Si solar cells, researches have been especially focused on the light trapping for the breakthrough in the saturated efficiencies. The ZnO-based transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) have therefore received strong attention because of their excellent light-scattering capability by the texture-etched surface and cost effectiveness through in-house fabrication. Here, we have highlighted our recent studies on the transparent conducting ZnO for thin-film Si solar cells. From the electrical properties and their degradation mechanisms, bilayer deposition and organic-acid texturing approaches for enhancing the light trapping, and finally the relation between textured ZnO and electrical cell performances are sequentially introduced in this review article.