Characterization of indium-tin-oxide films with improved corrosion resistance

Triple‐junction amorphous silicon solar cells coated with indium‐tin‐oxide (ITO) can be used to produce hydrogen gas from water and sunlight. However, a major limitation in their use is the short lifetime due to corrosion of the ITO coating that forms the anode in photoelectrochemical devices. In th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Surface and interface analysis 2005-04, Vol.37 (4), p.385-392
Main Authors: Gaarenstroom, Stephen W., Balogh, Michael P., Militello, Maria C., Waldo, Richard A., Wong, Curtis A., Kelly, Nelson A., Gibson, Thomas L., Kundrat, Matthew D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Chemical composition analysis, chemical depth and dopant profiling
Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties
Corrosion
Corrosion tests
Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science
rheology
EIS
EMPA
Exact sciences and technology
ITO
Materials science
Materials testing
Metals. Metallurgy
Physics
SEM
solar cell
Structure and morphology
thickness
Surfaces and interfaces
thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties)
Thin film structure and morphology
XPS
XRD
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Summary:Triple‐junction amorphous silicon solar cells coated with indium‐tin‐oxide (ITO) can be used to produce hydrogen gas from water and sunlight. However, a major limitation in their use is the short lifetime due to corrosion of the ITO coating that forms the anode in photoelectrochemical devices. In this work, we compare corrosion rates for ITO film electrodes grown using different sputter deposition conditions. The corrosion resistance varied by more than a factor of 15, with the longest‐lasting film having a time‐to‐failure of 25 h. The films were characterized exhaustively by techniques including electron microscopy, electron spectroscopy, electron microprobe and x‐ray diffraction to determine composition, thickness and microstructure. The most corrosion‐resistant films had the most well‐formed crystals and showed the most crystal texturing. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ISSN:0142-2421
1096-9918
DOI:10.1002/sia.2010