H diffusion in ITO

Although ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) is a widely used transparent conductive oxide, H diffusion in ITO has not been analysed in detail, yet. Especially for the application as a contact layer in photovoltaic devices, ITO layers have been and are used intensively. For most PV devices hydrogen plays a crucial role due to its influence of the passivation of silicon surfaces. Hence, the movement of H atoms in ITO layers is of importance for understanding the performance of PV devices. Therefore, we plan to implant hydrogen into ITO layers. Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS) and effusion spectroscopy will be applied to investigate the diffusion of hydrogen in the films and evaluate the diffusion coefficient from the depth profile Arrhenius dependency. Parameters: * the hydrogen peak should be implanted into a depth of about 0.1 to 0.15µm in the 0.6µm thick ITO layers (ITO on c-Si substrate) * two implantations are necessary with 10E15 and 3E15/cm^2 Best regards, Maurice Nuys