Patent ID: 8168463

Claim:
A method for fabricating a thin film of zinc oxide for a photovoltaic device comprising: providing a substrate having an absorber layer and an overlying window layer; loading the substrate into a chamber; subjecting the substrate to a vacuum environment ranging from 0.1 Torr to about 0.02 Torr while maintaining it at a temperature of between about 130 degrees Celsius to about 190 degrees Celsius; introducing a mixture of reactant species derived from diethylzinc species, water species, and a carrier gas; introducing a diborane species using a flow rate of less than five percent of the diethylzinc species into the mixture of reactant species; forming a zinc oxide film overlying the window layer to define a transparent conductive zinc oxide having a resistivity of less than about 2.5 milliohm-cm and an average grain size between about 3000 Angstroms and about 5000 Angstroms.