The silicon/zinc oxide interface in amorphous silicon-based thin-film solar cells: Understanding an empirically optimized contact

Gerlach, D.; Wilks, Regan G.; Wippler, D.; Wimmer, M.; Lozac’h, Mickaël; Félix, Roberto; Mück, A.; Meier, Matthias; Ueda, Shigenori; Yoshikawa, Hideki; Gorgoi, Mihaela; Lips, K.; Rech, Bernd; Sumiya, Masatomo; Hüpkes, J.; Kobayashi, Kazuyoshi; Bär, Marcus

doi:10.1063/1.4813448

Cited by 14 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Furthermore, its higher doping efficiency and its improved transport properties [20], [27], [28] compared with a-Si:H [19], [20], [29]-its potentially lower contact resistivity in particular-could help to increase the fill factor (FF). In fact, μc-Si:H has been reported to suppress Schottky barriers that are prone to form at the interface with the adjacent transparent conductive oxides (TCO) [7], [8], [29], [30].…”

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confidence: 99%

Strategies for Doped Nanocrystalline Silicon Integration in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Seif

Descoeudres

Nogay

et al. 2016

IEEE J. Photovoltaics

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Carrier collection in silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells is usually achieved by doped amorphous silicon layers of a few nanometers, deposited at opposite sides of the crystalline silicon wafer. These layers are often defect-rich, resulting in modest doping efficiencies, parasitic optical absorption when applied at the front of solar cells, and high contact resistivities with the adjacent transparent electrodes. Their substitution by equally thin doped nanocrystalline silicon layers has often been argued to resolve these drawbacks. However, low-temperature deposition of highly crystalline doped layers of such thickness on amorphous surfaces demands sophisticated deposition engineering. In this paper, we review and discuss different strategies to facilitate the nucleation of nanocrystalline silicon layers and assess their compatibility with SHJ solar cell fabrication. We also implement the obtained layers into devices, yielding solar cells with fill factor values of over 79% and efficiencies of over 21.1%, clearly underlining the promise this material holds for SHJ solar cell applications.Index Terms-Microcrystalline silicon, nanocrystalline silicon, silicon heterojunctions (SHJs), solar cells.

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confidence: 99%

Strategies for Doped Nanocrystalline Silicon Integration in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Seif

Descoeudres

Nogay

et al. 2016

IEEE J. Photovoltaics

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“…This is because the analysis-depth of HAXPES is much deeper than that of conventional XPS and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] In general, conventional XPS in the electron kinetic-energy range of 50-100 eV is quite surface sensitive due to the short electron inelastic mean free path (IMFP), k, of <5 Å . The conventional XPS spectra strongly reflect electronic states at surfaces of solids, 0021-8979/2016/119(2)/025306/5/$30.00 V C 2016 AIP Publishing LLC 119, 025306-1 which make it difficult to examine the electronic states inside the solids.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement of valence-band offset at native oxide/BaSi2 interfaces by hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Takabe

Ito

et al. 2016

Journal of Applied Physics

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Undoped n-type BaSi 2 films were grown on Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy, and the valence band (VB) offset at the interface between the BaSi 2 and its native oxide was measured by hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) at room temperature. HAXPES enabled us to investigate the electronic states of the buried BaSi 2 layer non-destructively thanks to its large analysis depth. We performed the depth-analysis by varying the take-off angle (TOA) of photoelectrons as 15 , 30 , and 90 with respect to the sample surface and succeeded to obtain the VB spectra of the BaSi 2 and the native oxide separately. The VB maximum was located at À1.0 eV from the Fermi energy for the BaSi 2 and À4.9 eV for the native oxide. We found that the band bending did not occur near the native oxide/BaSi 2 interface. This result was clarified by the fact that the core-level emission peaks did not shift regardless of TOA (i.e., analysis depth). Thus, the barrier height of the native oxide for the minority-carriers in the undoped n-BaSi 2 (holes) was determined to be 3.9 eV. No band bending in the BaSi 2 close to the interface also suggests that the large minority-carrier lifetime in undoped n-BaSi 2 films capped with native oxide is attributed not to the band bending in the BaSi 2 , which pushes away photogenerated minority carriers from the defective surface region, but to the decrease of defective states by the native oxide. V C 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.

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“…Recently, the silicon-(Si-) based thin film solar cells with several advantages, such as high absorptivity, easy fabrication, and low cost, have been extensively studied [1,2]. The hydrogenated amorphous-Si (a-Si:H) films and the microcrystalline-Si ( c-Si) films have been popularly utilized to fabricate the Si-based thin film solar cells.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance Improvement of Microcrystalline p-SiC/i-Si/n-Si Thin Film Solar Cells by Using Laser-Assisted Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

Lee

Wang

Tseng

2014

International Journal of Photoenergy

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The microcrystalline p-SiC/i-Si/n-Si thin film solar cells treated with hydrogen plasma were fabricated at low temperature using a CO 2 laser-assisted plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (LAPECVD) system. According to the micro-Raman results, the i-Si films shifted from 482 cm −1 to 512 cm −1 as the assisting laser power increased from 0 W to 80 W, which indicated a gradual transformation from amorphous to crystalline Si. From X-ray diffraction (XRD) results, the microcrystalline i-Si films with (111), (220), and (311) diffraction were obtained. Compared with the Si-based thin film solar cells deposited without laser assistance, the short-circuit current density and the power conversion efficiency of the solar cells with assisting laser power of 80 W were improved from 14.38 mA/cm 2 to 18.16 mA/cm 2 and from 6.89% to 8.58%, respectively.

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The silicon/zinc oxide interface in amorphous silicon-based thin-film solar cells: Understanding an empirically optimized contact

Cited by 14 publications

References 30 publications

Strategies for Doped Nanocrystalline Silicon Integration in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Strategies for Doped Nanocrystalline Silicon Integration in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Measurement of valence-band offset at native oxide/BaSi2 interfaces by hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Performance Improvement of Microcrystalline p-SiC/i-Si/n-Si Thin Film Solar Cells by Using Laser-Assisted Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

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