Asymmetric band offsets in silicon heterojunction solar cells: Impact on device performance

Seif, Johannes Peter; Menda, Deneb; Descoeudres, Antoine; Barraud, Loris; Özdemir, Orhan; Ballif, Christophe; De Wolf, Stefaan

doi:10.1063/1.4959988

Title: Asymmetric band offsets in silicon heterojunction solar cells: Impact on device performance

Journal Article · Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4959988· OSTI ID:1278695

Seif, Johannes Peter ^[1]; Menda, Deneb ^[2]; Descoeudres, Antoine ^[3]; Barraud, Loris ^[3]; Özdemir, Orhan ^[2]; Ballif, Christophe ^[1]; De Wolf, Stefaan ^[1]

Photovoltaics and Thin-Film Electronics Laboratory, Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Neuchatel (Switzerland)
Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul (Turkey). Dept. of Physics
CSEM, PV-Center, Neuchatel (Switzerland)

Amorphous/crystalline silicon interfaces feature considerably larger valence than conduction band offsets. In this article, we analyze the impact of such band offset asymmetry on the performance of silicon heterojunction solar cells. To this end, we use silicon suboxides as passivation layers—inserted between substrate and (front or rear) contacts—since such layers enable intentionally exacerbated band-offset asymmetry. Investigating all topologically possible passivation layer permutations and focussing on light and dark current-voltage characteristics, we confirm that to avoid fill factor losses, wider-bandgap siliconoxide films (of at least several nanometer thin) should be avoided in hole-collecting contacts. As a consequence, device implementation of such films as window layers—without degraded carrier collection—demands electron collection at the front and hole collection at the rear. Furthermore, at elevated operating temperatures, once possible carrier transport barriers are overcome by thermionic (field) emission, the device performance is mainly dictated by the passivation of its surfaces. In this context, compared to the standard amorphous silicon layers, the wide-bandgap oxide layers applied here passivate remarkably better at these temperatures, which may represent an additional benefit under practical operation conditions.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

View Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Switzerland)

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

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0006335

OSTI ID:: 1278695

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1279021; OSTI ID: 1354906

Journal Information:: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 120, Issue 5; ISSN 0021-8979

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

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 15 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (35)

Achievement of More Than 25% Conversion Efficiency With Crystalline Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cell Masuko, Keiichiro; Shigematsu, Masato; Hashiguchi, Taiki IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 4, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2014.2352151	journal	November 2014
Influence of oxygen impurity in the intrinsic layer of amorphous silicon solar cells Isomura, Masao; Kinoshita, Toshihiro; Hishikawa, Yoshihiro Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 65, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.112732	journal	October 1994
22.5% efficient silicon heterojunction solar cell with molybdenum oxide hole collector Geissbühler, Jonas; Werner, Jérémie; Martin de Nicolas, Silvia Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4928747	journal	August 2015
High-efficiency Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells: A Review De Wolf, Stefaan; Descoeudres, Antoine; Holman, Zachary C. green, Vol. 2, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1515/green-2011-0018	journal	January 2012
Efficient silicon solar cells with dopant-free asymmetric heterocontacts Bullock, James; Hettick, Mark; Geissbühler, Jonas Nature Energy, Vol. 1, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2015.31	journal	January 2016
Amorphous silicon oxide window layers for high-efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cells Peter Seif, Johannes; Descoeudres, Antoine; Filipič, Miha Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4861404	journal	January 2014
Current Losses at the Front of Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells Holman, Zachary C.; Descoeudres, Antoine; Barraud, Loris IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 2, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2011.2174967	journal	January 2012
Impact of carrier recombination on fill factor for large area heterojunction crystalline silicon solar cell with 25.1% efficiency Adachi, Daisuke; Hernández, José Luis; Yamamoto, Kenji Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4937224	journal	December 2015
Doping type and thickness dependence of band offsets at the amorphous/crystalline silicon heterojunction Korte, L.; Schmidt, M. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 109, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3559296	journal	March 2011
Transition metal oxides as hole-selective contacts in silicon heterojunctions solar cells Gerling, Luis G.; Mahato, Somnath; Morales-Vilches, Anna Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 145 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2015.08.028	journal	February 2016
Band lineup in amorphous/crystalline silicon heterojunctions and the impact of hydrogen microstructure and topological disorder Schulze, T. F.; Korte, L.; Ruske, F. Physical Review B, Vol. 83, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.83.165314	journal	April 2011
Silicon heterojunction solar cell with passivated hole selective MoO _x contact Battaglia, Corsin; de Nicolás, Silvia Martín; De Wolf, Stefaan Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4868880	journal	March 2014
Properties of high efficiency silicon heterojunction cells Bätzner, D. L.; Andrault, Y.; Andreetta, L. Energy Procedia, Vol. 8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2011.06.117	journal	January 2011
Amorphous/Crystalline Silicon Interface Passivation: Ambient-Temperature Dependence and Implications for Solar Cell Performance Seif, Johannes P.; Krishnamani, Gopal; Demaurex, Benedicte IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 5, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2015.2397602	journal	May 2015
Application of hydrogenated amorphous silicon oxide layers to c-Si heterojunction solar cells Fujiwara, Hiroyuki; Kaneko, Tetsuya; Kondo, Michio Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 91, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2790815	journal	September 2007
Evaluation of recombination processes using the local ideality factor of carrier lifetime measurements Hameiri, Ziv; McIntosh, Keith; Xu, GuangQi Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 117 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2013.05.040	journal	October 2013
Development status of high-efficiency HIT solar cells Mishima, Takahiro; Taguchi, Mikio; Sakata, Hitoshi Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 95, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2010.04.030	journal	January 2011
Transparent Electrodes in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells: Influence on Contact Passivation Tomasi, Andrea; Sahli, Florent; Seif, Johannes Peter IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2015.2484962	journal	January 2016
>21% Efficient Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells on n- and p-Type Wafers Compared Descoeudres, Antoine; Holman, Zachary C.; Barraud, Loris IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 3, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2012.2209407	journal	January 2013
Correlated Nonideal Effects of Dark and Light I–V Characteristics in a-Si/c-Si Heterojunction Solar Cells Chavali, Raghu Vamsi Krishna; Wilcox, John R.; Ray, Biswajit IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 4, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2014.2307171	journal	May 2014
Electronic states and band lineups in c-Si(100)/a- ${Si}_{1 - x}$ $C_{x}$ :H heterojunctions Brown, T. M.; Bittencourt, C.; Sebastiani, M. Physical Review B, Vol. 55, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.55.9904	journal	April 1997
Determination of the conduction band offset between hydrogenated amorphous silicon and crystalline silicon from surface inversion layer conductance measurements Kleider, J. P.; Gudovskikh, A. S.; Roca i. Cabarrocas, P. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 92, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2907695	journal	April 2008
Influence of Oxygen and Nitrogen in the Intrinsic Layer of a-Si:H Solar Cells Kinoshita, Toshihiro; Isomura, Masao; Hishikawa, Yoshihiro Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 35, Issue Part 1, No. 7 https://doi.org/10.1143/JJAP.35.3819	journal	July 1996
Valence band offset in heterojunctions between crystalline silicon and amorphous silicon (sub)oxides (a-SiO _x :H, 0 < x < 2) Liebhaber, M.; Mews, M.; Schulze, T. F. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4906195	journal	January 2015
Shunt types in crystalline silicon solar cells Breitenstein, O.; Rakotoniaina, J. P.; Al Rifai, M. H. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 12, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.544	journal	January 2004
Temperature Dependence of Amorphous/Crystalline Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells Taguchi, Mikio; Maruyama, Eiji; Tanaka, Makoto Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 47, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1143/JJAP.47.814	journal	February 2008
On the Nature of Shunt Leakage in Amorphous Silicon p-i-n Solar Cells Dongaonkar, Sourabh; Y., Karthik; Wang, Dapeng IEEE Electron Device Letters https://doi.org/10.1109/LED.2010.2064754	journal	November 2010
Improved quantitative description of Auger recombination in crystalline silicon Richter, Armin; Glunz, Stefan W.; Werner, Florian Physical Review B, Vol. 86, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.165202	journal	October 2012
Universality of non-Ohmic shunt leakage in thin-film solar cells Dongaonkar, S.; Servaites, J. D.; Ford, G. M. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 108, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3518509	journal	December 2010
Model for a-Si:H/c-Si interface recombination based on the amphoteric nature of silicon dangling bonds Olibet, Sara; Vallat-Sauvain, Evelyne; Ballif, Christophe Physical Review B, Vol. 76, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.76.035326	journal	July 2007
Molybdenum and tungsten oxide: High work function wide band gap contact materials for hole selective contacts of silicon solar cells Bivour, Martin; Temmler, Jan; Steinkemper, Heiko Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 142 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2015.05.031	journal	November 2015
Doping effect of oxygen or nitrogen impurity in hydrogenated amorphous silicon films Morimoto, Akiharu; Matsumoto, Minoru; Yoshita, Masahiro Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 59, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.106102	journal	October 1991
Valence band alignment and hole transport in amorphous/crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells Mews, Mathias; Liebhaber, Martin; Rech, Bernd Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4926402	journal	July 2015
High-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells: status and perspectives Battaglia, Corsin; Cuevas, Andres; De Wolf, Stefaan Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 9, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1039/C5EE03380B	journal	January 2016
Effects of oxygen incorporation in solar cells with a-SiO _x :H absorber layer Wang, Shuo; Smirnov, Vladimir; Chen, Tao Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 54, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.7567/JJAP.54.011401	journal	December 2014

Cited By (3)

Sonochemical Modification of SiGe Layers for Photovoltaic Applications Nadtochiy, Andriy; Korotchenkov, Oleg; Schlosser, Viktor physica status solidi (a), Vol. 216, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.201900154	journal	July 2019
Enhanced photoresponse of Ge/Si nanostructures by combining amorphous silicon deposition and annealing Podolian, A.; Nadtochiy, A.; Korotchenkov, O. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 124, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5029948	journal	September 2018
Photoelectric Properties of SiGe Films Covered with Amorphous- and Polycrystalline-Silicon Layers Shmid, V.; Podolian, A.; Nadtochiy, A. Ukrainian Journal of Physics, Vol. 64, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.15407/ujpe64.5.415	journal	June 2019

Similar Records

Asymmetric band offsets in silicon heterojunction solar cells: Impact on device performance

Journal Article · Sun Aug 07 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Journal of Applied Physics · OSTI ID:1278695

Ballif, Christophe; De Wolf, Stefaan; Menda, Deneb; +3 more

Amorphous Silicon Carbide Passivating Layers to Enable Higher Processing Temperature in Crystalline Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Conference · Mon Apr 06 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Stuart Stuart BowdenBowden · OSTI ID:1278695

Boccard, Mathieu; Holman, Zachary

High-efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cells: Status and perspectives

Conference · Mon May 11 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · OSTI ID:1278695

De Wolf, S.; Geissbuehler, J.; Loper, P.; +4 more

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
amorphous silicon
silicon oxide
passivation
silicon heterojunction
solar cells

Title: Asymmetric band offsets in silicon heterojunction solar cells: Impact on device performance

Citation Formats

References (35)

Cited By (3)

Similar Records

Related Subjects