Re doped SnO2 oxides for efficient UV Vis to infrared photon conversion application to solar cells
Spectral conversion using lanthanide doped materials with excellent performances is a great challenging topic and of particular interest for photovoltaic. This work aims at functionalizing transparent conductive oxide materials with rare earth elements for photons conversion purpose without affecting transparency and transport properties of the TCO. The spectral conversion targeted in this thesis is of type "down" in other words, we aim at converting high energy UV photons into low energy visible or NIR photons useful to solar cells. For this purpose we investigated the doping process of SnO2 as a host material with different rare earths such as Nd, Tb, Pr, and Yb. To understand the insertion process and the optical activation of the rare earth, RE doped SnO2 nanoparticles (powders) have been synthesised by two chemical methods: co precipitation and sol gel. The results have shown an efficient insertion of the RE into the SnO2 structure with excellent emission properties. In view of application of RE doped SnOx thin films to solar cells, studies concerning NIR emitting RE have been conducted (Nd, Yb, and co doping with Yb and Nd) using sputtering. Several deposition parameters and post deposition treatments have been done in order to find the best chemical environment favourable to the RE emission. We have precisely identified the region of the UV light converted into NIR photons and proposed several energy transfer mechanisms occurring between the host SnOx and the REs. In case of co doping, a second spectral conversion process has been identified; visible photons can be efficiently converted into NIR photons through energy transfer from Nd3+ to Yb3+ ions. Finally, application of these conversion layers to solar cells such as CIGS and Si based have shown an improvement of the cells characteristics, among others the Field factor, the cell efficiency and the increase of the spectral response of the cell in the UV region, thanks to the conversion of the UV photons into NIR photons. The good electrical properties of the RE doped SnOx layers have been highlighted as well. We believe that these conversion layers will provide a step ahead towards better solar cells performances.