Deposition of TCo films on plastic substrates by DC arc plasmatron

Summary form only given. Transparent conducting zinc oxide (ZnO) films have been extensively studied in recent several years because it is the non-poisonous, abundant and cheap material. ZnO films have been deposited by various techniques such as r.f. sputtering, pyrolysis and metal-organic CVD. Industrial manufacturing of the solar cells requires a development of cheap, effective and scalable technology. Typically used laboratory techniques don´t satisfy the industrial requirements in full. In our work we studied structure and electrical properties of ZnO films deposited by a DC arc plasmatron. The main advantages of the proposed technology are the high deposition rate, good scalability and low cost. New model of the DC arc plasmatron for deposition of thin ZnO films on the plastic substrates was developed. The special construction of the plasmatron allows depositing films on plastic substrate due to low heat transport; substrate temperature didn´t exceed 80AcircdegC during the deposition process. Deposition was done on the air. Emulsions of zinc acetylacetonate or ZnO powder were used as a source material and oxygen as a working gas and argon as a cathode protect gas. The plasmatron powered was varied in the range of 700-1500 watts to optimization of the deposition parameters and properties of the growth films. Deposition rate about 100 nm/min was achieved. The crystal structure and surface composition of the films were analyzed by SEM, X-Ray diffractometry and X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Four probe technique was used for the resistivity measurement. The transmittance of films was measured using spectrophotometry. Substrate temperature, ambient pressure, carrier and work gas flow rate were varied in wide range for optimization of the structure and properties of the deposited films.