Molecular hydrogen formation in hydrogenated silicon nitride

Dekkers, H.F.W.; Beaucarne, G.; Hiller, M.; Charifi, H.; Slaoui, A.

doi:10.1063/1.2396900

Cited by 69 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…A role for atomic H has also been reported for dense a-SiN x :H films. 27,52,53 The observation that hydrogen diffusion can take place in Al 2 O 3 at relatively low annealing temperatures has been corroborated by secondary ion mass spectrometry depth profiling.…”

Section: Hydrogen Diffusionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Influence of annealing and Al2O3 properties on the hydrogen-induced passivation of the Si/SiO2 interface

Dingemans¹,

Einsele²,

Beyer³

et al. 2012

Journal of Applied Physics

144

131

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Annealing at moderate temperatures is required to activate the silicon surface passivation by Al2O3 thin films while also the thermal stability at higher temperatures is important when Al2O3 is implemented in solar cells with screenprinted metallization. In this paper, the relationship between the microstructure of the Al2O3 film, hydrogen diffusion, and defect passivation is explored in detail for a wide range of annealing temperatures. The chemical passivation was studied using stacks of thermally-grown SiO2 and Al2O3 synthesized by atomic layer deposition. Thermal effusion measurements of hydrogen and implanted He and Ne atoms were used to elucidate the role of hydrogen during annealing. We show that the passivation properties were strongly dependent on the annealing temperature and time and were significantly influenced by the Al2O3 microstructure. The latter was tailored by variation of the deposition temperature (Tdep = 50 °C–400 °C) with hydrogen concentration [H] between 1 and 13 at.% and mass density ρmass between 2.7 and 3.2 g/cm3. In contrast to films with intermediate material properties, the passivation by low- and high density films showed a reduced thermal stability at relatively high annealing temperatures (∼600 °C). These observations proved to be in good agreement with thermal effusion results of hydrogen and inert gas atoms that were also strongly dependent on film microstructure. We demonstrate that the temperature of maximum effusion decreased for films with progressively lower density (i.e., with increasing [H]). Therefore, the reduced thermal stability of the passivation for low-density hydrogen-rich ([H] >∼5 at. %) films can be attributed to a loss of hydrogen at relatively low annealing temperatures. In contrast, the lower initial [H] for dense Al2O3 films can likely explain the lower thermal stability associated with these films. The effusion measurements also allowed us to discuss the role of molecular- and atomic hydrogen during annealing.

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Section: Hydrogen Diffusionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Influence of annealing and Al2O3 properties on the hydrogen-induced passivation of the Si/SiO2 interface

Dingemans¹,

Einsele²,

Beyer³

et al. 2012

Journal of Applied Physics

144

131

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“…ARC films are commonly used on the surface of textured cells to reduce the reflectivity further and to improve the photo current which leads to improving the efficiency of the solar cell. SiN x films or SiN x based stack layers are commonly used in the commercial solar cells for ARC purposes with their effective antireflective behavior and good passivation effect [7,8]. However, its deposition technique of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) [9,10] has some drawbacks, including the need for toxic and hazardous gases such as SiH 4 and NH 3 with vacuum processing for chemical vapor deposition operation, difficult handling, and high costs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Totally Vacuum-Free Processed Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells over 17.5% Conversion Efficiency

Üzüm

Kanda

Fukui³

et al. 2017

Photonics

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Abstract:In this work, we introduce a totally vacuum-free cost-efficient crystalline silicon solar cells. Solar cells were fabricated based on low-cost techniques including spin coating, spray pyrolysis, and screen-printing. A best efficiency of 17.51% was achieved by non-vacuum process with a basic structure of CZ-Si p-type solar cells. Short circuit current density (J SC ) and open circuit voltage (V OC ) of the best cell were measured as 38.1 mA·cm −2 and 596.2 mV, respectively with fill factor (FF) of 77.1%. Suns-Voc measurements were carried out and the detrimental effect of the series resistance on the performance was revealed. It is concluded that higher efficiencies are achievable by the improvements of the contacts and by utilizing good quality starting wafers.

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“…11,18 The observed differences between Si-rich and N-rich SiN x capping films are consistent with the fact that the diffusion and release of hydrogen, initially bonded as Si-H and N-H in SiN x , are very sensitive to film composition. [23][24][25] Effusion of hydrogen in Si-rich SiN x was shown to occur at lower temperatures compared to more compact SiN x , 24,25 which led to a reduced availability of hydrogen at high annealing temperatures. Therefore, the results in Fig.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effective passivation of Si surfaces by plasma deposited SiOx/a-SiNx:H stacks

Dingemans

Mandoc

Bordihn

et al. 2011

Applied Physics Letters

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Very low surface recombination velocities <6 and <11 cm/s were obtained for SiOx/a-SiNx:H stacks synthesized by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition on low resistivity n- and p-type c-Si, respectively. The stacks induced a constant effective lifetime under low illumination, comparable to Al2O3 on p-type Si. Compared to single layer a-SiNx:H, a lower positive fixed charge density was revealed by second-harmonic generation measurements, while field-effect passivation was absent for a reference stack comprising thermally grown SiO2. The results indicate that hydrogenation of interface states played a key role in the passivation and remained effective up to annealing temperatures >800 °C.

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Molecular hydrogen formation in hydrogenated silicon nitride

Cited by 69 publications

References 21 publications

Influence of annealing and Al2O3 properties on the hydrogen-induced passivation of the Si/SiO2 interface

Influence of annealing and Al2O3 properties on the hydrogen-induced passivation of the Si/SiO2 interface

Totally Vacuum-Free Processed Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells over 17.5% Conversion Efficiency

Effective passivation of Si surfaces by plasma deposited SiOx/a-SiNx:H stacks

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