Properties of Aluminium Thin Films on Polyethylene Terephthalate Substrates as Back Contacts in Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells

Abstract

Aluminium thin films on polyethylene terephthalate substrates prepared via thermal evaporation method and annealed under different temperatures have been investigated. High peak belonging to aluminium atoms is evident from energy dispersive X-ray spectra. From X-ray diffraction pattern, the polycrystalline nature of aluminium thin film is observed with (200) dominant peak at 2θ = 44.52°. With increased annealing temperatures, the atomic force microscope shows increased surface roughness root-mean-square but sheet resistance and surface reflectance show reducing values. The effects of each characterization towards performance of thin film silicon solar cells are subsequently discussed.

Keywords:

• atomic force microscope
• polyethylene terephthalate
• sheet resistance
• surface reflectance

Acknowledgments

The support of Universiti Sains Malaysia and financial assistance from Incentive Grant 1001/PFIZIK/821061 is gratefully acknowledged. The authors thank Penfibre Sdn. Bhd. (Malaysia) for contributing the PET samples for this work.