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Title: Electrical properties and surface morphology of electron beam evaporated p-type silicon thin films on polyethylene terephthalate for solar cells applications

Abstract

One way to realize low-cost thin film silicon (Si) solar cells fabrication is by depositing the films with high-deposition rate and manufacturing-compatible electron beam (e-beam) evaporation onto inexpensive foreign substrates such as glass or plastic. Most of the ongoing research is reported on e-beam evaporation of Si films on glass substrates to make polycrystalline solar cells but works combining both e-beam evaporation and plastic substrates are still scarce in the literature. This paper studies electrical properties and surface morphology of 1 µm electron beam evaporated Al-doped p-type silicon thin films on textured polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate for application as an absorber layer in solar cells. In this work, Si thin films with different doping concentrations (including an undoped reference) are prepared by e-beam evaporation. Energy dispersion X-ray (EDX) showed that the Si films are uniformly doped by Al dopant atoms. With increased Al/Si ratio, doping concentration increased while both resistivity and carrier mobility of the films showed opposite relationships. Root mean square (RMS) surface roughness increased. Overall, the Al-doped Si film with Al/Si ratio of 2% (doping concentration = 1.57×10{sup 16} atoms/cm{sup 3}) has been found to provide the optimum properties of a p-type absorber layer for fabrication of thinmore » film Si solar cells on PET substrate.« less

Authors:
; ;  [1]
  1. Nano-Optoelectronics Research and Technology Laboratory, School of Physics, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Minden 11800 Penang (Malaysia)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22391516
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
AIP Conference Proceedings
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 1657; Journal Issue: 1; Conference: PERFIK 2014: National Physics Conference 2014, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), 18-19 Nov 2014; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 0094-243X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; CARRIER MOBILITY; CONCENTRATION RATIO; DEPOSITION; DOPED MATERIALS; ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY; ELECTRON BEAMS; EVAPORATION; LAYERS; MORPHOLOGY; PLASTICS; POLYCRYSTALS; POLYESTERS; P-TYPE CONDUCTORS; ROUGHNESS; SILICON; SOLAR CELLS; SUBSTRATES; SURFACES; THIN FILMS

Citation Formats

Ang, P. C., Ibrahim, K., and Pakhuruddin, M. Z. Electrical properties and surface morphology of electron beam evaporated p-type silicon thin films on polyethylene terephthalate for solar cells applications. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1063/1.4915164.
Ang, P. C., Ibrahim, K., & Pakhuruddin, M. Z. Electrical properties and surface morphology of electron beam evaporated p-type silicon thin films on polyethylene terephthalate for solar cells applications. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4915164
Ang, P. C., Ibrahim, K., and Pakhuruddin, M. Z. 2015. "Electrical properties and surface morphology of electron beam evaporated p-type silicon thin films on polyethylene terephthalate for solar cells applications". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4915164.
@article{osti_22391516,
title = {Electrical properties and surface morphology of electron beam evaporated p-type silicon thin films on polyethylene terephthalate for solar cells applications},
author = {Ang, P. C. and Ibrahim, K. and Pakhuruddin, M. Z.},
abstractNote = {One way to realize low-cost thin film silicon (Si) solar cells fabrication is by depositing the films with high-deposition rate and manufacturing-compatible electron beam (e-beam) evaporation onto inexpensive foreign substrates such as glass or plastic. Most of the ongoing research is reported on e-beam evaporation of Si films on glass substrates to make polycrystalline solar cells but works combining both e-beam evaporation and plastic substrates are still scarce in the literature. This paper studies electrical properties and surface morphology of 1 µm electron beam evaporated Al-doped p-type silicon thin films on textured polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate for application as an absorber layer in solar cells. In this work, Si thin films with different doping concentrations (including an undoped reference) are prepared by e-beam evaporation. Energy dispersion X-ray (EDX) showed that the Si films are uniformly doped by Al dopant atoms. With increased Al/Si ratio, doping concentration increased while both resistivity and carrier mobility of the films showed opposite relationships. Root mean square (RMS) surface roughness increased. Overall, the Al-doped Si film with Al/Si ratio of 2% (doping concentration = 1.57×10{sup 16} atoms/cm{sup 3}) has been found to provide the optimum properties of a p-type absorber layer for fabrication of thin film Si solar cells on PET substrate.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4915164},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22391516}, journal = {AIP Conference Proceedings},
issn = {0094-243X},
number = 1,
volume = 1657,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Apr 24 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Fri Apr 24 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}