Highly Efficient Silicon Nanoarray Solar Cells by a Single‐Step Plasma‐Based Process

Xu, Shengzhi; Huang, Shiyong; Levchenko, Igor; Zhou, Haiping; Wei, Dong; Xiao, Shuzhang; Xu, Luxiang; Yan, Weirong; Ostrikov, Kostya Ken

doi:10.1002/aenm.201100085

Cited by 57 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Plasmas containing H 2 -N 2 are extensively applied for thin film growth and material processing on the nanometer scale [1][2][3] . For example, thin films of silicon nitride which are fabricated by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) in the semiconductor industry are used as passivation layers 4 and in the photovoltaic industry 3,5 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement and modeling of neutral, radical, and ion densities in H2-N2-Ar plasmas

Sode

Jacob

Schwarz-Selinger

et al. 2015

Journal of Applied Physics

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A comprehensive experimental investigation of absolute ion and neutral species densities in an inductively coupled H 2 -N 2 -Ar plasma was carried out. Additionally, the radical and ion densities were calculated using a zero-dimensional rate equation model. The H 2 -N 2 -Ar plasma was studied at a pressure of 1.5 Pa and an rf power of 200 W. The N 2 partial pressure fraction was varied between f N 2 = 0 % and 56 % by a simultaneous reduction of the H 2 partial pressure fraction. The Ar partial pressure fraction was held constant at about 1 %. NH 3 was found to be produced almost exclusively on the surfaces of the chamber wall. NH 3 contributes up to 12 % to the background gas.To calculate the radical densities with the rate equation model it is necessary to know the corresponding wall loss times t wrad of the radicals. t wrad was determined by the temporal decay of radical densities in the afterglow with ionization threshold mass spectrometry during pulsed operation and based on these experimental data the absolute densities of the radical species were calculated and compared to measurement results.Ion densities were determined using a plasma monitor (mass and energy resolved mass spectrometer). H + 3 is the dominant ion in the range of 0.0 ≤ f N 2 < 3.4 %. For 3.4 < f N 2 < 40 % NH + 3 and NH + 4 are the most abundant ions and agree with each other within the experimental uncertainty. For f N 2 = 56 % N 2 H + is the dominant ion while NH + 3 and NH + 4 have only a slightly lower density. Ion species with densities in the range between 0.5 and 10 % of n i,tot are H + 2 , ArH + , and NH + 2 . Ion species with densities less than 0.5 % of n i,tot are H + , Ar + , N + , and NH + . Our model describes the measured ion densities of the H 2 -N 2 -Ar plasma reasonably well. The ion chemistry, i.e., the production and loss processes of the ions and radicals, are discussed in detail. The main features, i.e., the qualitative abundance of the ion species and the ion density dependence on the N 2 partial pressure fraction, are well reproduced by the model.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement and modeling of neutral, radical, and ion densities in H2-N2-Ar plasmas

Sode

Jacob

Schwarz-Selinger

et al. 2015

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…3 4 Highly efficient commercial Si solar cells require relatively large amounts of high-purity solar-grade Si to fully absorb incident sunlight, since Si has low absorption in the visible and nearinfrared region of the solar spectrum; these Si solar cells must also have long minority carrier diffusion lengths to ensure minimal carrier recombination and enhanced carrier collection. [5][6][7] In recent years, increasing effort has been devoted to address these problems by fabricating SiNWbased solar cells, which, due to incident light-trapping within the NW arrays, exhibit a higher absorbance per unit thickness than commercial Si solar cells and thus open a * Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed. path to low-cost solar cell production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Shell Growth and Doping Conditions of Core–Shell Homojunction Si Nanowire Solar Cells

Dutta¹,

Fukata²

2015

j nanosci nanotechnol

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Effects of shell growth and doping conditions on the structural, optical and photovoltaic properties of core-shell homojunction Si nanowire (SiNW) arrays have been investigated. Core-shell nanowires were fabricated using a combination of metal-catalyzed electroless etching (MCEE) and thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques. SiNWs formed by MCEE technique readily bundles with each other, disturbing the formation of radial p-n junctions surrounding them. CVD has made it possible to form uniform p-type Si shell layers on n-type SiNWs formed by MCEE technique. Results of SEM and Raman measurements reveal that electrical active B concentration can be increased with increase of shell thickness by increasing doping gas fluxes and growth time while keeping good crystallinity. Reflectivity measurements show an increase of light reflection in the visible range with increasing shell thickness. The short circuit current (I(sc)) and fill factor (FF) closely depend on the shell growth time and the dopant gas flux for the growth of shell layers. These results show doping conditions to be a key parameter for core-shell homojunction SiNW solar cells.

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“…Typically, arrays of FLGF are formed using low-temperature plasma-based processes [19], e.g. based on the inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) technique [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphological Characterization of Graphene Flake Networks Using Minkowski Functionals

Levchenko¹,

Fang²,

Ostrikov³

et al. 2016

Graphene

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Two Minkowski functionals were tested in the capacity of morphological descriptors to quantitatively compare the arrays of vertically-aligned graphene flakes grown on smooth and nanoporous alumina and silica surfaces. Specifically, the Euler-Poincaré characteristic and fractal dimension graphs were used to characterize the degree of connectivity and order in the systems, i.e. in the graphene flake patterns of petal-like and tree-like morphologies on solid substrates, and meshlike patterns (networks) grown on nanoporous alumina treated in low-temperature inductivelycoupled plasma. It was found that the Minkowski functionals return higher connectivity and fractal dimension numbers for the graphene flakepatterns with more complex morphologies, and indeed can be used as morphological descriptors to differentiate among various configurations of vertically-aligned graphene flakes grown on surfaces.

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Highly Efficient Silicon Nanoarray Solar Cells by a Single‐Step Plasma‐Based Process

Cited by 57 publications

References 30 publications

Measurement and modeling of neutral, radical, and ion densities in H2-N2-Ar plasmas

Measurement and modeling of neutral, radical, and ion densities in H2-N2-Ar plasmas

Effect of Shell Growth and Doping Conditions of Core–Shell Homojunction Si Nanowire Solar Cells

Morphological Characterization of Graphene Flake Networks Using Minkowski Functionals

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