Amorphous boron-silicon-hydrogen alloys for thin-film heterojunction solar cells. Final report, 1 June 1980-31 May 1981

Technical Report · Wed Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1981

OSTI ID:5356335

Moore, A. R.; Carlson, D. E.; Smith, R. W.

Amorphous boron-silicon-hydrogen (a-B:Si:H) films have been grown in dc proximity glow discharges in atmospheres containing B/sub 2/H/sub 6/, SiH/sub 4/ and H/sub 2/. The films are p-type and exhibit conductivities as high as approx. 3 x 10/sup -4/ ..cap omega../sup -1/ cm/sup -1/. The conductivity of a-B:Si:H films increases with substrate temperature and annealing temperature for temperatures up to 500/sup 0/C (highest investigated). However, increasing the conductivity causes the optical gap to decrease. Amorphous boron-silicon-hydrogen alloys have been used to make heterojunction contacts to hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films. The best conversion efficiency for these heterojunction devices is approx. 1.65% as compared to approx. 5.5% for a-Si:H p-i-n devices made in the same system with similar deposition conditions. The performance of a-B:Si:H/a-Si:H heterojunction cells appears to be limited mainly by a large density of interface states that act as trapping and recombination centers. Also investigated is another p-type, wide bandgap material, namely, microcrystalline silicon-carbon-hydrogen (m-Si:C:H). Three techniques to make m-Si:C:H films were explored: glow-discharge deposition, thermal annealing of a-Si:C:H films, and laser annealing of a-Si:C:H films. While results indicate that laser annealing is the most promising approach, the formation of microblisters prevented us from fabricating devices.

• Research Organization: Solar Energy Research Inst., Golden, CO (USA); RCA Labs., Princeton, NJ (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-77CH00178
• OSTI ID: 5356335
• Report Number(s): SERI/PR-0-9010-4; ON: DE82016854
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140501* -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Photovoltaic Conversion
ABSORPTION SPECTRA
ALLOYS
AMORPHOUS STATE
ANNEALING
BORANES
BORON ALLOYS
BORON COMPOUNDS
CARBON ADDITIONS
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
DEPOSITION
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
GLOW DISCHARGES
HEAT TREATMENTS
HEATING
HETEROJUNCTIONS
HYDRIDES
HYDROGEN
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
JUNCTIONS
LASER-RADIATION HEATING
NONMETALS
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLASMA HEATING
RECOMBINATION
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS
SILANES
SILICON ALLOYS
SILICON COMPOUNDS
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SPECTRA
TRAPPING