Effect of Sputtering and Annealing Parameters on Properties of Silicon Quantum Dot Matrix

Abstract

Fabrication of the third generation photovoltaic (PV) solar cell uses thin film deposition technique to deposit dielectrics such as SiO2, Si3N4, SiC, and SiOx. The layer works as a barrier layer, capping layer, tunneling medium, and an intermediate i- layer in the p-i-n structure solar cell. Control of physical parameters and morphology of thin film layer is essential for the synthesis of the quantum dots PV solar cell. The presented work use sputtering as deposition technique to fabricate SRO/SiO2 multilayers on controlling the deposition parameters RF power, gas flow rate, and deposition time. Parameters (e.g. annealing temperature and annealing time) which helps quantum dots (QDs) to form during post deposition annealing are varied to control the size of QDs. The fabricated device is examined for physical and optical properties using spectroscopic techniques such as a surface profiler, SEM, FTIR, UV-Vis, and PL