Optical and Structural Properties of Fluorine Doped SnO2 on Si (100) for Photovoltaic Application

Abstract

Photovoltaic material plays a vital role in the production of energy storage devices, more specifically in solar cell fabrications. In this work, ITO:F-doped materials were coated over the silicon substrate through spray pyrolysis technique. X-ray diffraction studies were conducted for porous silicon (PSi) coated with ITO:F structures formed at different current densities. This pore formation is evident from the broad peak at 69.9°, revealing an amorphous-like nature but at the same location where the single crystalline peak also is observed. These pores are explicitly shown in the SEM images in which very fine surface fragments are observed. At 20 mA/cm2, well-defined porous patterns that were uniformly distributed over the surface were observed. The microstructures observed via atomic force microscopy for these PSi coated with ITO:F structures are randomly aligned and almost evenly distributed over the entire surface of these nanorods, which are approximately 40 nm. Radiative recombination of electrons from a level in the conduction band or its subband to a level at an energy difference of greater than 1.7 eV in the valance band or its subband will emit visible light.