Investigation of physical properties of F-and-Ga co-doped ZnO thin films grown by RF magnetron sputtering for perovskite solar cells applications

F-and-Ga co-doped ZnO films were sputter-deposited on glass substrates by RF magnetron sputtering method. The fabricated films were characterized by different techniques. It was found that all the films were polycrystalline with a hexagonal wurtzite structure with a c-axis preferred orientation of growth. The effect of the substrate temperature on the surface morphology, electrical and optical properties of the films was also investigated. The optimal growth temperature was found to be 440 oC which led to the optimal film with the resistivity of 6.81 × 10−4 Ωcm, carrier concentration of 2.61 × 1020 cm−3, mobility of 35.1 cm2/V, over-90% transmittance in the region of 400–1200 nm and a wide optical bandgap of 3.49 eV. This optimal film was employed in as the front contact in perovskite solar cells and resulted in a high power-conversion efficiency of 15.32%. This indicates that such a film can be promisingly useful for high-performance thin-film solar cells.