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Impact of epitaxial growth at the heterointerface of a-Si:H/c-Si solar cells

Journal Article · · Applied Physics Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2426900· OSTI ID:20883258
;  [1]
  1. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Central 2, Umezono 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568 (Japan)

The authors have demonstrated that interface structures of heterojunction solar cells consisting of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and crystalline silicon (c-Si) have quite large impact on the solar cell performance. In particular, unintentional epitaxial growth was found to occur during an intended a-Si:H i-layer growth on c-Si in plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). By the formation of the epitaxial layer at the interface, the solar cell efficiency decreases significantly. Their result shows that the epitaxial layer is formed rather easily in PECVD, even without the presence of H{sub 2} gas, and may have affected many previous studies on a-Si:H/c-Si solar cells seriously.

OSTI ID:
20883258
Journal Information:
Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 90; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English