Surface passivation of crystalline silicon by sputter deposited hydrogenated amorphous silicon

Zhang, Xinyu; Hargreaves, Stuart; Wan, Yimao; Cuevas, Andrés

doi:10.1002/pssr.201308253

Cited by 18 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 34 publications

(55 reference statements)

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“…For both types a maximum life time can be determined for a deposition temperature of 325°C while further increase of deposition temperature leads to a decrease in passiv ation quality. This correlates to the mentioned findings for directly hy drogenated RFSD (i) a Si:H [11]. Moreover, it can be seen in Fig.…”

Section: Passivation Qualitysupporting

confidence: 90%

“…[10,11]) as well as PECVD (Ref. [52 59]), the absolute passivation quality of initially unhydrogenated a Si even after hydrogenation is very low.…”

Section: Passivation Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[11]) that passivation quality of hydro genated RFS deposited (i) a Si:H depends on deposition temperature as well as layer thickness. This correlates to findings of PECVD a Si:H [52,60].…”

Section: Passivation Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It can be assumed that the missing influence of direct plasma can be replaced by a higher deposition temperature finding an optimum at 325°C. Temperatures above 325°C provide an epitaxial growth of the film and lower the passivation quality of the layer [11]. Fig.…”

Section: Passivation Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to these publications the quality of surface passivation of RFS deposited films was similar to PECV deposited ones. To achieve surface passivating a Si:H layers directly during RFSD, Ar has to be mixed with only 2% of hydrogen [11]. More common in the field of RFSD layers for c Si surface passivation are aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) (Refs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Influence of post-hydrogenation upon electrical, optical and structural properties of hydrogen-less sputter-deposited amorphous silicon

Gerke

Becker²,

Rogalla³

et al. 2016

Thin Solid Films

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a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oAmorphous silicon (a Si) is common in the production of technical devices and can be deposited by several techniques. In this study intrinsic and doped, hydrogen less amorphous silicon films are RF magnetron sputter deposited and post hydrogenated in a remote hydrogen plasma reactor at a temperature of 370°C. Secondary ion mass spectrometry of a boron doped (p) a Si layer shows that the concentration of dopants in the sputtered layer becomes the same as present in the sputter target. Improved surface passivation of phosphorous doped 5 Ω cm, FZ, (n) c Si can be achieved by post hydrogenation yielding a minority carrier lifetime of~360 μs finding an optimum for~40 nm thin films, deposited at 325°C. This relatively low minority carrier lifetime indicates high disorder of the hydrogen less sputter deposited amorphous network. Post hydrogenation leads to a decrease of the number of localized states within the band gap. Optical band gaps (Taucs gab as well as E 04 ) can be determined to~1.88 eV after post hydrogenation. High resolution transmission electron microscopy and optical Raman investigations show that the sputtered layers are amorphous and stay like this during post hydrogenation. As a consequence of the missing hydrogen during deposition, sputtered a Si forms a rough surface compared to CVD a Si. Atomic force microscopy points out that the roughness decreases by up to 25% during post hydrogenation. Nuclear resonant reaction analysis permits the investigation of hydrogen depth profiles and allows determining the diffusion coefficients of several post hydrogenated samples from of a model developed within this work. A dependency of diffusion coefficients on the duration of post hydrogenation indicates trapping diffusion as the main diffusion mechanism. Additional Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy measurements show that hardly any interstitial hydrogen exists in the post hydrogenated a Si layers. The results of this study open the way for further hydrogen diffusion experiments which require an initially unhydrogenated drain layer.

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Section: Passivation Qualitysupporting

confidence: 90%

“…[10,11]) as well as PECVD (Ref. [52 59]), the absolute passivation quality of initially unhydrogenated a Si even after hydrogenation is very low.…”

Section: Passivation Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[11]) that passivation quality of hydro genated RFS deposited (i) a Si:H depends on deposition temperature as well as layer thickness. This correlates to findings of PECVD a Si:H [52,60].…”

Section: Passivation Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Passivation Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Influence of post-hydrogenation upon electrical, optical and structural properties of hydrogen-less sputter-deposited amorphous silicon

Gerke

Becker²,

Rogalla³

et al. 2016

Thin Solid Films

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Impact of bilayer structures on the surface passivation quality of high‐rate‐sputtered hydrogenated amorphous silicon for silicon heterojunction solar cells

Zulkifly

Shiratori

Nakada

et al. 2020

Progress in Photovoltaics

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Crystalline silicon surface passivation effect of intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (i‐a‐Si:H) films deposited by radio‐frequency facing target sputtering (RF‐FTS) using a two‐step deposition technique was investigated. In the two‐step deposition technique, an i‐a‐Si:H layer was deposited at a high sputtering power condition after the deposition of i‐a‐Si:H at a low sputtering power condition. The two‐step deposition technique drastically improved the passivation quality of i‐a‐Si:H compared with a conventional single‐step deposition technique. Only 0.5‐nm‐thick i‐a‐Si:H deposited at a low sputtering power suppresses the initial sputtering damage to the crystalline silicon surface. A high average deposition rate of 14.1 nm/min was also achieved. A non‐textured silicon heterojunction solar cell using an i‐a‐Si:H passivation layer deposited by the two‐step method shows a conversion efficiency of 17.4% (Voc = 0.679 V, Jsc = 35.0 mA/cm2, FF = 0.732).

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Dielectric surface passivation for silicon solar cells: A review

Bonilla

Hoex

Hamer

et al. 2017

Physica Status Solidi (a)

235

161

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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Silicon wafer solar cells continue to be the leading photovoltaic technology, and in many places are now providing a substantial portion of electricity generation. Further adoption of this technology will require processing that minimises losses in device performance. A fundamental mechanism for efficiency loss is the recombination of photo-generated charge carriers at the unavoidable cell surfaces. Dielectric coatings have been shown to largely prevent these losses through a combination of different passivation mechanisms. This review aims to provide an overview of the dielectric passivation coatings developed in the past two decades using a standardised methodology to characterise the metrics of surface recombination across all techniques and materials. The efficacy of a large set of materials and methods has been evaluated using such metrics and a discussion on the current state and prospects for further surface passivation improvements is provided.

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Surface passivation of crystalline silicon by sputter deposited hydrogenated amorphous silicon

Cited by 18 publications

References 34 publications

Influence of post-hydrogenation upon electrical, optical and structural properties of hydrogen-less sputter-deposited amorphous silicon

Influence of post-hydrogenation upon electrical, optical and structural properties of hydrogen-less sputter-deposited amorphous silicon

Impact of bilayer structures on the surface passivation quality of high‐rate‐sputtered hydrogenated amorphous silicon for silicon heterojunction solar cells

Dielectric surface passivation for silicon solar cells: A review

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