Fabrication and evaluation of a silicon photovoltaic cell with a directly nitrided tunnel insulator
The fabrication of MIS solar cells with nitrided insulator films is described. A technique for low temperature growth of the insulator film by direct nitridation in active nitrogen generated by electric discharge is presented. This film is found to be very smooth and its thickness is nearly independent of the active nitrogen exposure time. Cell performance is a strong function of exposure time and a film densification growth mechanism is proposed. The nitrided cells have been empirically optimized for energy conversion performance and characterized according to Schottky barrier diode theory. Physical constants governing cell operation are obtained from current-voltage and capacitance-voltage measurements. Active area conversion efficiencies are nominally 8 percent as compared to 6 1/2 percent nominal efficiency for similarly fabricated cells with thermally grown silicon oxide insulators. Quantum efficiencies under monochromatic illumination in the visible spectrum are shown to be higher than those of junction type cells. An improvement in insulator stability has been realized and the shelf life of the unprotected cells is in excess of 630 days witn no significant change in performance.
- OSTI ID:
- 5485286
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
MIS SOLAR CELLS
ELECTRICAL INSULATION
PERFORMANCE
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
CAPACITANCE
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
FILMS
NITRIDES
OPTIMIZATION
QUANTUM EFFICIENCY
ROUGHNESS
SCHOTTKY BARRIER DIODES
STABILITY
CURRENTS
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
EQUIPMENT
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PNICTIDES
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES
SEMICONDUCTOR DIODES
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SURFACE PROPERTIES
140501* - Solar Energy Conversion- Photovoltaic Conversion