Synthesis of Tantalum-Doped Tin Oxide Thin Films by Magnetron Sputtering for Photovoltaic Applications

Tantalum-doped tin oxide transparent conductive thin films were deposited on glass substrates by radio frequency and direct current reactive magnetron co-sputtering methods in an argon and oxygen environment. Optimization of the thin films for photovoltaic applications was performed using a dimensionless figure of merit by combining electrical and transparency properties. The optimized thin film showed a weight-averaged transmittance of 83%, a band gap value of 3.2 eV, resistivity of 5.2 × 10−3 Ω cm, and bulk carrier concentration of 1.2 × 1020 cm−3. The lowest resistivity among all films was 2.1 × 10−3 Ω cm, corresponding to a weight-averaged transmittance of 62%. The optimized deposition condition was carried out by co-sputtering on heated substrates at 270°C. Thin films deposited under this optimized condition were applied for our perovskite solar cells, and demonstrated promising power conversion efficiency.