Fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) thin film as transparent conductive oxide (TCO) for photovoltaic applications

Textured FTO thin films were deposited on corning glass substrates at 420°C by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method. The electrical, optical and structural properties of the prepared functional FTO thin films were investigated. Homogeneous textured columnar grain morphology was observed through FESEM. As prepared thin films exhibits polycrystalline cassiterite structure with preferred orientation along (200). FTO is a promising TCO as front electrodes of thin film solar cells because of their good electrical properties (4.3×10−4ω.cm) combined with high transmission properties (86%).