Direct correlation of microstructure and device performance of liquid phase crystallized Si thin film solar cells on glass

Kühnapfel, Sven; Gall, S.; Sonntag, Paul; Schäfer, Norbert; Abou‐Ras, Daniel

doi:10.1002/pssr.201600219

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Former experiments have shown that the crystallization parameters effect the final material quality [23]. In detail especially slow vscan improve the microstructural properties of the silicon layer.…”

Section: Figure 4: Phase Diagram For the Crystallization Of (Left) 6 mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…So, while the material quality of the TG-1 substrate improves and the standard deviation decreases as the scanning velocity of the laser is reduced there is no specific trend observed for the cells fabricated on SLG-2 substrates. Neither the average values nor the standard deviations are affected by the crystallization velocity in stark contrast to LPC-processed devices on technical glass substrates[23]. It is likely, that the absence of this usual trend for liquid phase crystallized absorbers is caused by the expansion coefficient mismatch between substrate and silicon.…”

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confidence: 92%

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Multi crystalline silicon thin films grown directly on low cost soda-lime glass substrates

Kühnapfel

Severin

Kersten

et al. 2019

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

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Liquid phase crystallization of silicon is a promising technology platform to grow multi crystalline silicon thin films on foreign substrates. For solar cell application it has already been demonstrated that open circuit voltages of up to 661 mV [1] and efficiencies of up to 15.9 % [2] can be achieved on a silicon layer of a few microns only. However, while the quality of the material has been continuously improved, the cost factor of the utilized substrate has been given little attention. The present work focuses on the technology transfer from technical glass substrates to low cost soda-lime glass substrates to become more attractive for commercial applications. We demonstrate first liquid phase crystallized silicon layer on soda-lime glass substrate and show that the layer adhesion by the more than twice as large expansion coefficient of soda lime glasses compared to the established technical glasses has a significant influence on various processing options and countermeasures to overcome adhesion issues have to be considered. Furthermore, we investigate the electrical performance of the resulting absorber material for silicon thin film solar cells and report our first results on the electrical performance in terms of open circuit voltages, Hall mobility's and effective minority carrier lifetimes.

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Section: Figure 4: Phase Diagram For the Crystallization Of (Left) 6 mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 92%

Multi crystalline silicon thin films grown directly on low cost soda-lime glass substrates

Kühnapfel

Severin

Kersten

et al. 2019

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

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“…Moreover, electron-backscatter diffraction (EBSD) probes the local crystal orientation and symmetry, and thus can provide grain-size and orientation distributions, and also allows for categorizing grain boundaries via the misorientations between neighboring grains with spatial resolutions ranging from about 10 nm when using electrontransparent lamellae up to several cm for bulk specimens (Kühnapfel et al, 2016). From the recorded EBSD patterns, also microstrain distributions within individual grains can be determined (Schäfer et al, 2016).…”

Section: Microscopic Materials and Device Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced characterization and in-situ growth monitoring of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin films and solar cells

et al. 2018

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The continuous improvement of Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 (CIGSe) solar cells relies considerably on advanced characterization of individual layers in the solar-cell stacks as well as of completed CIGSe devices. The present contribution provides an overview of corresponding efforts performed by various research groups at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH. In-situ growth monitoring of CIGSe absorber layers by means of energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry and light scattering is described, as well as structural analyses by means of X-ray and neutron diffraction. In addition, the characterization of surfaces and interfaces by soft X-ray and electron spectroscopy, the microscopic analysis by means of correlative electron microscopy, and optoelectronic characterization by optical spectroscopy are highlighted. The present contribution shows which substantial efforts in a research network are necessary in order to obtain deeper insight into materials properties and potentially limiting factors for the device performance, as well as to be able to control these factors during the solar-cell production.

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“…In Kühnapfel et al it was shown that the amount of recombination active grain boundaries can be reduced by proper crystallization parameters. However, the contribution of the absorber deposition process is unclear, yet.…”

Section: Bulk Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of the precursor layer composition and deposition processes on the electronic quality of liquid phase crystallized silicon absorbers

Amkreutz

Preissler

Thi-Trinh

et al. 2017

Progress in Photovoltaics

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Liquid phase crystallization using line-shaped energy sources such as CW-diode lasers or electron beams has proven to form mc-Si layers on borosilicate or borosilicate/aluminosilicate glass that exhibit wafer equivalent grain sizes and electronic quality. In this work, we characterize the impact of the employed dielectric interlayer stack sandwiched between glass and absorber on the electronic quality. For this purpose, we investigate a large variety of test cell results achieved in the past on different interlayer stacks composed of silicon oxide, silicon nitride as well as silicon oxynitride deposited by means of plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition or plasma oxidation and employ i(v), SunsVoc, quantum efficiency measurements, and photoluminescence imaging to assess the electronic properties of the crystallized absorbers. The results are compared with state-of the art interdigitated back-contact cells and literature values. Based on these findings, we conclude that at the present state of interlayer , the bulk quality imposes the limits in cell efficiency and investigates potential approaches to increase the bulk quality of LPC-Si absorbers.

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Direct correlation of microstructure and device performance of liquid phase crystallized Si thin film solar cells on glass

Cited by 5 publications

References 25 publications

Multi crystalline silicon thin films grown directly on low cost soda-lime glass substrates

Multi crystalline silicon thin films grown directly on low cost soda-lime glass substrates

Advanced characterization and in-situ growth monitoring of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin films and solar cells

Influence of the precursor layer composition and deposition processes on the electronic quality of liquid phase crystallized silicon absorbers

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