摘要： Laser scribing is a common method used for manufacturing large-scale solar cells to increase cell efficiency by subdividing large cells into small mini-modules connected in series, decreasing the current produced and therefore reducing the ohmic losses. Introducing large temperature gradients causes thermal expansion and subsequently induced stresses, and these stresses can be used to cause mechanical fracture and material removal. Gaussian beams, which are commonly used in existing scribing practice, have high energy intensity in the center of the beam resulting in unwanted substrate damage as well as excess energy toward the edge of the beam spot. This contributes to the formation of a heat affected zone and partial melting also resulting in large sidewall taper and residual material. The top-hat distribution, having a much more rapid decrease in intensity at the spot edges and more uniform intensity throughout, greatly reduces the likelihood of melting or partial removal on the spot edges, as well as the risk of damage to the glass substrate. However, little work has been done to quantify the differences in the resulting scribe quality of these laser beam intensity distributions. In this study, experiments were carried out on 400 nm thick SnO2:F TCO layer irradiated from the glass side using a 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser with both Gaussian and top-hat intensity distributions. Samples were processed using pulse energies ranging from 5μJ to 30μJ. Pulse repetition rates of 10 kHz were used. Scribe geometry was observed using AFM scans and SEM images. Possible negative effects such as delamination and crack formation resulting from abrupt intensity changes are investigated. A coupled thermo-mechanical finite element model is used to analyze the spatial temperature and stress distributions within the film during the scribing process. Our results find that the top-hat beam profile improves the uniformity and depths of the scribes, but increased thermal effects along the walls are experienced.