Impact of water corrosion on nanoscale conductance on aluminum doped zinc oxide

Abstract

One major cause of failure in solar cell modules is associated with the degradation of conductive layers by the ingress of water. In this study, the corrosive interactions between water and transparent conducting oxides, including aluminum-doped ZnO (AZO) and indium tin oxide (ITO), were studied. The AZO layer exhibited -90% increase in sheet resistance from 17.5 to 33 ohm/square after an accelerated moisture test where the samples were stored at 80 degrees C and 100% humidity, while the conductivity of the ITO layer remained essentially unchanged. In order to elucidate the water-induced degradation mechanism of AZO, the structure and composition were characterized with conductive atomic force microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) before and after the moisture test. It was found that the grain boundary of AZO exhibits a higher local conductance compared to that in the middle of the grain. A decrease in local conductance at the grain boundary after the moisture test was observed, which is attributed to depletion of the Zn, based on XPS and EDS analyses.