High Pressure Sputtering of materials for selective contacts in emerging photovoltaic cells

In this work we have explored the growth by high pressure sputtering (HPS) of materials intended for novel selective contacts for photovoltaic cells. This technique shows promise for the low-damage low-temperature deposition of PV materials. We studied the deposition of ITO, MoO
x
and TiO
x
using pure Ar and mixed Ar/O
2
atmospheres as well as ceramic or metallic targets. We show that HPS deposition of these materials is feasible. The growth rate is greatly reduced when oxygen is added to the argon sputtering atmosphere. The best sputtering RF power was 20–45 W for the pressure range studied. Finally, as-deposited films present high surface recombination, but a mild hot plate anneal at 200°C recovers long effective lifetimes.