Transparent Conducting Oxides (TCOs)

Transparent conducting oxides are an important material class for many opto-electronic devices such as displays, photovoltaic solar cells and light emitting diods (LEDs). The groups research is focussed on investigation novel TCO materials such as the new p-type transparent conducting oxide, Cr2O3:(Mg,N) found by us in 2011.

p-type TCOs

Our largest research project in the field of TCOs concerns hole conducting transparent (semi)conducting oxides. Such p-type TCOs are much sought after for fully transparent oxide electronics and can also help to improve efficiencies of solar cells and LEDs.

The performance of well known p-type TCOs is still rather poor. In the group we investigate a new, promising material based on Cr2O3. In particular we are interested in:

  • Doping and conduction mechanisms in p-type TCOs
  • Investigations of correlation of growth conditions to optical and electrical properties
  • Applications of p-type TCOs in organic photovoltaic solar cells
  • Fundamental investigations of interface formation in fully transparent p-n junctions

Modified n-type TCOs

We also investigate ways to modify some core properties of well known n-type TCOs such as SnO2:F (FTO) and ZnO:Al (AZO) in terms of refractive index modifications, band gap engineering, and optical scattering properties (haze). Our work includes:

  • Elemental substitution to alter the optical properties of such TCOs
  • Investigations of novel layered structures for effective medium materials

 

TCO  image

Illustration of the transparency and conductivity improvement of spray pyrolysis grown Cr2O3 once the precursor solution contains Magnesium and Nitrogen releasing species

 

Selected Publications