Combinatorial approach for development of new metal oxides materials for all oxide photovoltaics

Abstract

The combinatorial approach to all oxide material and device research is based on the synthesis of hundreds of related materials in a single experiment. This approach requires the development of new tools to rapidly characterize these materials libraries and new techniques to analyze the resulting data. The research presented here is intended to make a contribution towards meeting this demand, and thereby advance the pace of materials research. In many cases photovoltaic determinations are well-suited for high throughput methodologies, enabling direct quantitative analysis of properties whose implementation I demonstrate my thesis. This thesis focuses on the development and utilization of high throughput and combinatorial methods that have incorporated, or are associated with, the all-oxide photovoltaic field. The development of new absorbers often requires novel buffer layers, contact materials, and interface engineering. The importance and contribution of the combinatorial material science approach for the development and rapid characterization of new and known metal oxide thin films for all oxide photovoltaics have been shown and discussed in my thesis.