Amorphous silicon carbide passivating layers for crystalline-silicon-based heterojunction solar cells

Boccard, Mathieu; Holman, Zachary C.

doi:10.1063/1.4928203

Title: Amorphous silicon carbide passivating layers for crystalline-silicon-based heterojunction solar cells

Journal Article · Fri Aug 14 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4928203· OSTI ID:1229744

^[1]; Holman, Zachary C. ^[1]

Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)

With this study, amorphous silicon enables the fabrication of very high-efficiency crystalline-silicon-based solar cells due to its combination of excellent passivation of the crystalline silicon surface and permeability to electrical charges. Yet, amongst other limitations, the passivation it provides degrades upon high-temperature processes, limiting possible post-deposition fabrication possibilities (e.g., forcing the use of low-temperature silver pastes). We investigate the potential use of intrinsic amorphous silicon carbide passivating layers to sidestep this issue. The passivation obtained using device-relevant stacks of intrinsic amorphous silicon carbide with various carbon contents and doped amorphous silicon are evaluated, and their stability upon annealing assessed, amorphous silicon carbide being shown to surpass amorphous silicon for temperatures above 300°C. We demonstrate open-circuit voltage values over 700 mV for complete cells, and an improved temperature stability for the open-circuit voltage. Transport of electrons and holes across the hetero-interface is studied with complete cells having amorphous silicon carbide either on the hole-extracting side or on the electron-extracting side, and a better transport of holes than of electrons is shown. Also, due to slightly improved transparency, complete solar cells using an amorphous silicon carbide passivation layer on the hole-collecting side are demonstrated to show slightly better performances even prior to annealing than obtained with a standard amorphous silicon layer.

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Research Organization:: Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0006335

OSTI ID:: 1229744

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1229615

Journal Information:: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 118, Issue 6; ISSN 0021-8979

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 52 works

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