Oxygen migration enthalpy likely limits oxide precipitate dissolution during tabula rasa

Looney, E. E.; Laine, H. S.; Youssef, A.; Jensen, M. A.; LaSalvia, V.; Stradins, P.; Buonassisi, T.

doi:10.1063/1.4987144

Title: Oxygen migration enthalpy likely limits oxide precipitate dissolution during tabula rasa

Journal Article · Mon Sep 25 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4987144· OSTI ID:1400367

^[1]; Laine, H. S. ^[2]; Youssef, A. ^[1]; Jensen, M. A. ^[1]; LaSalvia, V. ^[3]; Stradins, P. ^[3]; Buonassisi, T. ^[1]

Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Aalto Univ., Espoo (Finland)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

In industrial silicon solar cells, oxygen-related defects lower device efficiencies by up to 20% (rel.). In order to mitigate these defects, a high-temperature homogenization anneal called tabula rasa (TR) that has been used in the electronics industry is now proposed for use in solar-grade wafers. This work addresses the kinetics of tabula rasa by elucidating the activation energy governing oxide precipitate dissolution, which is found to be 2.6 ± 0.5 eV. This value is consistent within uncertainty to the migration enthalpy of oxygen interstitials in silicon, implying TR to be kinetically limited by oxygen point-defect diffusion. Furthermore, this large activation energy is observed to limit oxygen precipitate dissolution during standard TR conditions, suggesting that more aggressive annealing conditions than conventionally used are required for complete bulk microdefect mitigation.

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Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office; National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S

Contributing Organization:: SunShot National Laboratory Multiyear Partnership (SuNLaMP)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308; EEC-1041895; 1122374; EE00030301

OSTI ID:: 1400367

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1394672

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5J00-70316

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 111, Issue 13; ISSN 0003-6951

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

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 5 works

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Title: Oxygen migration enthalpy likely limits oxide precipitate dissolution during tabula rasa

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