Amorphous-Silicon-Based Thin-Film Solar Cells Exhibiting Low Light-Induced Degradation

Matsui, Takuya; Sai, Hitoshi; Saito, Kimihiko; Kondo, Michio

doi:10.1143/jjap.51.10nb04

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…As shown in Fig. 5a, the cell efficiency decays under prolonged light exposure, and the light-induced degradation can be partially reversed by an annealing [44][45][46][47][48][49][50]. Moreover, the reverse process can be accelerated at moderate temperatures by applying a strong electric field and exposure to intense illumination, because an electric field can reduce the activation energy of a-Si:H solar cells [51,52].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Light soaking of hydrogenated amorphous silicon: a short review

Wang,

Meng,

Zhang

et al. 2024

Carb Neutrality

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Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) has a long history in the development of photovoltaics, especially in the research field of a-Si:H thin-film solar cells and crystalline/amorphous silicon heterojunction solar cells. More than 40 years ago, Staebler and Wronski reported conductance decrease of a-Si:H induced by light soaking. This phenomenon has been widely investigated for electronic applications. In contrast to that, we found light soaking can also improve dark conductance of a-Si:H when boron or phosphorus atoms are doped into the amorphous network. Here we survey these two photoelectronic effects, and discuss their implementations to silicon solar cells.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Light soaking of hydrogenated amorphous silicon: a short review

Wang,

Meng,

Zhang

et al. 2024

Carb Neutrality

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“…Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin film solar cells have attracted attention due to their thin and flexible features and a relatively low production cost compared with other solar cells [2]. A critical challenge for a-Si:H solar cells is the suppression of light-induced degradation, as this degradation leads to a significant reduction in the efficiency of the solar cells [3,4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification and Suppression of Si-H<sub>2 </sub>Bond Formation at P/I Interface in a-Si:H Films Deposited by SiH<sub>4 </sub>Plasma CVD

Tanaka

Hara

Nagaishi

et al. 2019

Plasma and Fusion Research

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Light-induced degradation is an important problem concerning hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells. A-Si:H films of lower Si-H 2 bond density exhibit less light-induced degradation. In this study, Raman spectroscopy measurements of a-Si:H films with P-layer/I-layer structure reveal that high-density Si-H 2 bonds exist in the I-layer within 60 nm of the P/I interface. These Si-H 2 bonds originate from surface reactions of SiH 3 radicals, as the alternative origin (i.e., cluster incorporation) is considerably suppressed by a multi-hollow discharge plasma chemical vapor deposition method. For an I-layer thickness of 20 nm, the density ratio of Si-H 2 and Si-H bonds in the I-layer decreases from 0.133 to 0.053 as the substrate temperature increases from 170 • C to 250 • C. Fine tuning of the substrate temperature during the initial stage of I-layer deposition is thus effective in suppressing Si-H 2 bond formation at the P/I interface.

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“…Following a degradation of about 8 − 10 % for the most stable materials , the highest stabilized efficiencies are about 10 % for single‐junction a ‐Si:H solar cells after light soaking . To understand the processes of light‐induced defect generation and thermal annealing, studies of LID kinetics were typically conducted on layers, and M. Stutzmann et al found experimentally (based on electron spin resonance measurements of the neutral dangling bonds) in agreement with the “weak‐bond model” the dependence of the dangling bond concentration N db

N_{db} (t) \propto G^{\frac{2}{3}} \cdot t^{\frac{1}{3}},

on the time t and on the electron–hole pair generation rate G .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of amorphous silicon absorber materials: Kinetics of light‐induced degradation

Stückelberger

Billet

Riesen

et al. 2014

Progress in Photovoltaics

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We investigate the influence of the deposition parameters for intrinsic amorphous silicon absorber layers on light-induced degradation (LID) of thin-film silicon solar cells. The focus is on absorber layers with different bandgaps: on one side, solar cells with a wide-bandgap absorber layer that provides open-circuit voltages up to 1.04 V; on the other, cells with shortcircuit current densities of 18.2 mA / cm 2 with a 300-nm-thick narrow-bandgap absorber layer, and 20 mA / cm 2 at reverse bias for a cell with a 1000-nm-thick absorber layer. Between these extremes, we varied the hydrogen-to-silane ratio and the deposition pressure during the absorber layer deposition. The light-induced degradation of these materials-covering the deposition regimes of low-pressure, protocrystalline, polymorphous, and high-pressure amorphous silicon-incorporated in single-junction amorphous silicon solar cells is detailed here. For each pressure, we found an optimum hydrogen dilution with least LID close to the amorphous-to-microcrystalline transition. The relative LID is similar for all pressures at optimized hydrogen dilutions. Further, we present the influence of absorber layer thickness, p-layer thickness, and deposition rate on the kinetics of light-induced degradation to facilitate the choice of a material for its application in several types of multi-junction thin-film silicon solar cells. We show that the degradation kinetics depends, in semi-logarithmic scale, only weakly on time but more on deposition conditions.

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Amorphous-Silicon-Based Thin-Film Solar Cells Exhibiting Low Light-Induced Degradation

Cited by 10 publications

References 18 publications

Light soaking of hydrogenated amorphous silicon: a short review

Light soaking of hydrogenated amorphous silicon: a short review

Identification and Suppression of Si-H<sub>2 </sub>Bond Formation at P/I Interface in a-Si:H Films Deposited by SiH<sub>4 </sub>Plasma CVD

Comparison of amorphous silicon absorber materials: Kinetics of light‐induced degradation

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