Preferential orientation growth of ITO thin film on quartz substrate with ZnO buffer layer by magnetron sputtering technique

In order to improve the photoelectric transformation efficiency of thin-film solar cells, one plausible method was to improve the transparent conductive oxides (TCO) material property. In-doped tin oxide (ITO) was an important TCO material which was used as a front contact layer in thin-film solar cell. Using magnetron sputtering deposition technique, we prepared preferential orientation ITO thin films on quartz substrate. XRD and SEM measurements were used to characterize the crystalline structure and morphology of ITO thin films. The key step was adding a ZnO thin film buffer layer before ITO deposition. ZnO thin film buffer layer increases the nucleation center numbers and results in the (222) preferential orientation growth of ITO thin films.