Investigation on the Magnesium Fluoride as an Electron Carrier Selective Contact layer for Solar Cell Applications

Abstract

In this work, Magnesium Fluoride (MgF2) nanomaterials were synthesized by the microwave assisted method. Due to its high transparency, small refractive index and wide band gap would easily replace the amorphous silicon layer (a-Si:H(n)) in silicon heterojunction solar cells. Magnesium nitrate and ammonium fluoride was used for the synthesis of MgF2 nanomaterials. Optical absorptance spectra of the MgF2 films was measured by UV-Vis spectrophotometer. X- ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analysis were performed to characterize the structural and surface morphology of MgF2 nanomaterials. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic (FTIR) analysis was used to study the functional groups in MgF2 nanomaterials. Simulation study for the electron carrier selective contact solar cell device was performed for the thickness and work function variations of MgF2 layers.