Tailoring the structural and optical properties of MZO thin film

Magnesium-doped Zinc Oxide, MgZnO (MZO) is a promising front contact material for CdTe solar cells application. In this study, MZO thin films are grown first by RF magnetron sputtering. Afterwards, MZO and Aluminium-doped Zinc Oxide (AZO) are co-sputtered and subsequently annealed from 350 degrees C to 550 degrees C to modify the structural and optical properties. The performance of MZO thin film as a High Resistance Transparent (HRT) layer has been scrutinized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), and UV-Vis spectrophotometry to analyse the crystalline structure, morphology, and optical characteristics. XRD analysis illustrates a peak shift of hexagonal wurtzite structure (002) plane and FESEM presents an increment in grain size from 31.3 nm to 64.8 nm. Meanwhile, the optical characterization exhibits the enhanced transmission for the annealed films whereas the energy band gap can be tuned in a range from 3.32 eV to 3.65 eV.