Patent ID: 7872194

Claim:
A photovoltaic device provided with a transparent conductive oxide film on a light incident side of the photovoltaic device and a collector electrode on the transparent conductive oxide film, wherein: a silicon oxide film serving as a light-transmitting protective film is provided on at least regions where the collector electrode is not formed on the transparent conductive oxide film, the silicon oxide film being directly provided on the transparent conductive oxide film in the regions; an arithmetic mean deviation (Ra) of a surface of the transparent conductive oxide film is less than 1.0 nm and more than 0 nm; the silicon oxide film is approximately 1 to 10 times thicker than the arithmetic mean deviation (Ra) of the surface of the underlying transparent conductive oxide film; and the silicon oxide film is comprised of a film having a Si-2p peak with a full width at half maximum of 2.45 eV or less evaluated by an X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.