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Research

Transparent Conducting Oxides (TCOs)

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

Selected Publications

• Title:
  • Improving solar cell efficiency with optically optimised TCO layers
• Authors:
  • Fleischer, K.; Arca, E.; Shvets, I. V.
• Source:
  • Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 101, p262 (2012)
• TARA:
  • Full text (Trinity open access repository)

• Title:
  • Effect of Chemical Precursors On the Optical and Electrical Properties of p-Type Transparent Conducting Cr₂O₃:(Mg,N)
• Authors:
  • Elisabetta Arca, Karsten Fleischer, Sergey A. Krasnikov, and Igor Shvets
• Source:
  • J. Phys. Chem. C 117, p21901 (2013)
• TARA:
  • Full text (Trinity open access repository)

• Title:
  • Spray pyrolysis growth of a high figure of merit, nano-crystalline, p-type transparent conducting material at low temperature
• Authors:
  • L. Farrell, E. Norton, B. J. O'Dowd, D. Caffrey, I. V. Shvets and K. Fleischer
• Source:
  • Appl. Phys. Lett. 107, 031901 (2015)

People working on Transparent Conducting Oxides

• Dr. Elisabetta Arca

  Office: CRANN, 4.13
  Email: earca@tcd.ie
  Tel: +353 (0) 896 1821
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• Dr. Karsten Fleischer

  Office: CRANN, 2.25
  Email: fleisck@tcd.ie
  Tel: +353 (0) 896 3649
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• Leo Farrell

  Office: CRANN, 2.24
  Email: lefarrel@tcd.ie
  Tel: +353 (0) 896 3808
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• Daragh Mullarkey

  Office: CRANN, 2.24
  Email: mullarkd@tcd.ie
  Tel: +353 (0) 896 3808
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