Liquid-phase crystallized silicon absorber layers have been applied in heterojunction solar cells on glass substrates with 10.8% conversion efficiency and an open-circuit voltage of 600 mV. Intermediate layers of SiO x , SiN x , and SiO x N y , as well as the a-Si:H precursor layer, were deposited on 30 cm × 30 cm glass substrates using industrial-type plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition equipment. After crystallization on 3 cm × 5 cm area using a continuous-wave infrared laser line, the resulting polysilicon material showed high material quality with large grain sizes. Index Terms-Heterojunction, liquid-phase crystallization, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), thin-film silicon.

Zinc oxide films with natural zinc and isotopically pure Z68n were grown by pulsed laser deposition on sapphire substrates. Prior to and after ion implantation with N2+ the samples were characterized with Raman spectroscopy. After implantation the well-known N-related vibrational modes at 273.9 and 509.5 cm−1 are observed. In the isotopically pure Z68nO samples the vibrational modes exhibit a shift of 5.4 and 1.6 cm−1 to smaller wave numbers. As a result of the experimental data the vibrational modes at 273.9 and 509.5 cm−1 are attributed to a ZnI–NO and ZnI–OI complex, respectively. This is consistent with ab initio calculations based on density functional theory.

Raman backscattering measurements were performed on single crystal ZnO for different excitation wavelengths before and after ion implantation with hydrogen and nitrogen. In addition to the formation of H- and N-related defects due to implantation, anomalous Raman modes were observed. Recently, the anomalous Raman modes have been attributed to the disorder-induced activation of silent modes. However, we will show that part of the observed modes are due to the resonantly enhanced longitudinal optical phonons.

Raman backscattering and Fourier transform infrared measurements were performed on undoped and nitrogen-doped ZnO. Two broad vibrational modes near 1414 and 1585cm−1 were found that are attributed to the presence of carbon sp2 clusters. In nitrogen-doped ZnO these modes are enhanced. In addition a broad vibrational mode near 2004cm−1 is believed to be due to Zn–H complexes. The incorporation of N results in the formation of cyano radicals NO and NNO complexes effectively lowering the N doping efficiency. Furthermore, infrared measurements revealed the presence of CO2 molecules.

The advanced opto‐electronic properties of microcrystalline silicon oxide (µc‐SiOx:H) thin film layers deposited by means of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) resulted in several applications of this material especially in solar cells and modules in the last years. We investigated the plasma chemistry during the PECVD of µc‐SiOx:H using in situ plasma diagnostics. Plasma properties are related to the properties of resulting µc‐SiOx:H films measured ex situ. Two different deposition regimes were identified. Besides the standard low pressure regime, a high pressure regime was found, which lead to µc‐SiOx:H layers with high crystallinities and low refractive indices.