Synthesis and Characterisation of Hafnium Oxynitride Thin Film: Can It Be Used as a Hot Carrier Solar Cell Material?

The hot carrier solar cell (HCSC) is a novel concept to utilize the maximum energy from the sun in a photovoltaic device. It requires a hot carrier absorber (HCA) material which can absorb a broad range of solar energy and maintain ‘hot’ carriers for a long enough time to allow extraction of the carriers whilst they are still hot, thus minimizing the thermalization loss. It also requires energy and charge carrier selective contacts incorporated in the device. Recent literature presents many potential HCA materials with their pros and cons. In this paper, we explore the structural and optical properties of atomic layer deposited HfOxNy thin film, as a candidate HCSC material.