Plasma-initiated rehydrogenation of amorphous silicon to increase the temperature processing window of silicon heterojunction solar cells

Shi, Jianwei; Boccard, Mathieu; Holman, Zachary

doi:10.1063/1.4958831

Title: Plasma-initiated rehydrogenation of amorphous silicon to increase the temperature processing window of silicon heterojunction solar cells

Journal Article · Mon Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4958831· OSTI ID:1354913

Shi, Jianwei ^[1];

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

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

The dehydrogenation of intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) at temperatures above approximately 300°C degrades its ability to passivate silicon wafer surfaces. This limits the temperature of post-passivation processing steps during the fabrication of advanced silicon heterojunction or silicon-based tandem solar cells. We demonstrate that a hydrogen plasma can rehydrogenate intrinsic a-Si:H passivation layers that have been dehydrogenated by annealing. The hydrogen plasma treatment fully restores the effective carrier lifetime to several milliseconds in textured crystalline siliconwafers coated with 8-nm-thick intrinsic a-Si:H layers after annealing at temperatures of up to 450°C. Plasma-initiated rehydrogenation also translates to complete solar cells: A silicon heterojunction solar cell subjected to annealing at 450°C (following intrinsic a-Si:H deposition) had an open-circuit voltage of less than 600 mV, but an identical cell that received hydrogen plasma treatment reached a voltage of over 710 mV and an efficiency of over 19%.

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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:: 1354913

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1264787; OSTI ID: 1354908; OSTI ID: 1354911

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 3; ISSN 0003-6951

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

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 21 works

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Defect engineering of p‐type silicon heterojunction solar cells fabricated using commercial‐grade low‐lifetime silicon wafers Chen, Daniel; Kim, Moonyong; Shi, Jianwei Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3230	journal	December 2019
Recent Progress in Understanding the Properties of the Amorphous Silicon/Crystalline Silicon Interface Kleider, Jean‐Paul; Alvarez, José; Brüggemann, Rudolf physica status solidi (a), Vol. 216, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.201800877	journal	February 2019
Pre‐Fabrication Gettering and Hydrogenation Treatments for Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells: A Possible Path to >700 mV Open‐Circuit Voltages Using Low‐Lifetime Commercial‐Grade p‐Type Czochralski Silicon Hallam, Brett; Chen, Daniel; Shi, Jianwei Solar RRL, Vol. 2, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1002/solr.201700221	journal	January 2018

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Title: Plasma-initiated rehydrogenation of amorphous silicon to increase the temperature processing window of silicon heterojunction solar cells

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