Improved Transparent Conducting Oxides Boost Performance of Thin-Film Solar Cells (Fact Sheet)

Today?s thin-film solar cells could not function without transparent conducting oxides (TCOs). TCOs act as a window, both protecting the cell and allowing light to pass through to the cell?s active layers. Until recently, TCOs were seen as a necessary, but static, layer of a thin-film photovoltaic (PV) cell. But a group of researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) hasidentified a pathway to producing improved TCO films that demonstrate higher infrared transparency. To do so, they have modified the TCOs in ways that did not seem possible a few years ago.