Highly effective passivation of crystalline silicon surfaces achieved through transparent conductive Al-doped ZnO layers

This paper presents the preparation of Al doped ZnO (Al:ZnO) thin layers, utilizing a direct co-precipitation method and subsequent application onto silicon (Si) surfaces through spin-coating. The investigation systematically explores the influence of Al doping on crystallinity and photoelectrochemical (PEC) characteristics. AFM and XRD are examples of sophisticated methods used to evaluate the crystal structure and surface morphology. Moreover, FTIR and photoconductance were used to examine surface passivation and anti-reflexion in ZnO films that were both undoped and doped with Al. Significantly, the introduction of aluminum lead to a noteworthy augmentation of the effective minority carrier lifetime, escalating from 2 to 106 μs. Additionally, the reflexion percentage at λ = 600 nm exhibited a substantial decrease from 30% to around 5% upon the insertion of Al-doped ZnO on Si surfaces.