Properties investigation of thin films photovoltaic hetero-structures

This paper presents an experimental investigation of photovoltaic (PV) properties in heterostructures consisting of indium oxide and amorphous silicon thin films, grown on a single crystalline p-type silicon and polyimide flexible substrates. Both thin films: In₂O₃ and a-Si were deposited by magnetron sputtering. Such heterostructure thin film systems are attractive because of their ability to convert solar energy into electrical one. Grown Heterostructures films were treated by simultaneous influence of an electron beam and high energetic photons with energy more than 1.5 eV in the so called vacuum photo-thermal processing (VPP). Silicon samples of 100 /sq and 45 7/sq were selected as substrates. Thin films deposition was done in argon atmosphere by DC magnetron sputtering. It is shown that: Open circuit voltage of the proposed structure may reach up to ~ 0.35 V, Short circuit current was of no more then 10-7 A, Polyimide materials may be used as substrates for PV thin film deposition structures, VPP dramatically varies the photovoltaic properties of the heterostructure.