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Title: Sputtered-amorphous-silicon solar cells. Final technical report, July 22, 1980-July 22, 1981

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5251101

The electronic bombardment has been identified as the parameter which controls the amorphous si film's microstructure. Utilizing this finding, material with good electronic properties has been produced. Also, a kinetic model has been developed for the hydrogen incorporation and methods to manipulate the hydrogen bonding configuration. Factors are identified, besides the hydrogen content, which influence the optical gap. Material was produced with the lowest density of states in the gap reported in the literature and the dangling bond was identified as the important defect for carrier recombination. The correlation between optical gap barrier height and collection width suggest that films with gaps larger than 1.8 eV may lead to devices with higher efficiency. Finally, the effect of phosphorous and boron contamination as well as compensation effects have been demonstrated. P-I-N solar cells with efficiency of 4% have been obtained. These results suggest that reactive sputtering would lead to solar cell structure with efficiency equivalent to those of glow discharge.

Research Organization:
Solar Energy Research Inst., Golden, CO (USA); Exxon Research and Engineering Co., Linden, NJ (USA). Advanced Energy Systems Labs.
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-77CH00178
OSTI ID:
5251101
Report Number(s):
SERI/TR-9219-T2; ON: DE82012235
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English