Amorphous silicon carbide passivating layers for crystalline-silicon-based heterojunction solar cells
Abstract
With this study, amorphous silicon enables the fabrication of very high-efficiency crystalline-silicon-based solar cells due to its combination of excellent passivation of the crystalline silicon surface and permeability to electrical charges. Yet, amongst other limitations, the passivation it provides degrades upon high-temperature processes, limiting possible post-deposition fabrication possibilities (e.g., forcing the use of low-temperature silver pastes). We investigate the potential use of intrinsic amorphous silicon carbide passivating layers to sidestep this issue. The passivation obtained using device-relevant stacks of intrinsic amorphous silicon carbide with various carbon contents and doped amorphous silicon are evaluated, and their stability upon annealing assessed, amorphous silicon carbide being shown to surpass amorphous silicon for temperatures above 300°C. We demonstrate open-circuit voltage values over 700 mV for complete cells, and an improved temperature stability for the open-circuit voltage. Transport of electrons and holes across the hetero-interface is studied with complete cells having amorphous silicon carbide either on the hole-extracting side or on the electron-extracting side, and a better transport of holes than of electrons is shown. Also, due to slightly improved transparency, complete solar cells using an amorphous silicon carbide passivation layer on the hole-collecting side are demonstrated to show slightly better performances even prior tomore »
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1229744
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1229615
- Grant/Contract Number:
- EE0006335
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Applied Physics
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 118; Journal Issue: 6; Journal ID: ISSN 0021-8979
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; passivation; carbon; carbides; amorphous semiconductors; band gap
Citation Formats
Boccard, Mathieu, and Holman, Zachary C. Amorphous silicon carbide passivating layers for crystalline-silicon-based heterojunction solar cells. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1063/1.4928203.
Boccard, Mathieu, & Holman, Zachary C. Amorphous silicon carbide passivating layers for crystalline-silicon-based heterojunction solar cells. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4928203
Boccard, Mathieu, and Holman, Zachary C. Fri .
"Amorphous silicon carbide passivating layers for crystalline-silicon-based heterojunction solar cells". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4928203. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1229744.
@article{osti_1229744,
title = {Amorphous silicon carbide passivating layers for crystalline-silicon-based heterojunction solar cells},
author = {Boccard, Mathieu and Holman, Zachary C.},
abstractNote = {With this study, amorphous silicon enables the fabrication of very high-efficiency crystalline-silicon-based solar cells due to its combination of excellent passivation of the crystalline silicon surface and permeability to electrical charges. Yet, amongst other limitations, the passivation it provides degrades upon high-temperature processes, limiting possible post-deposition fabrication possibilities (e.g., forcing the use of low-temperature silver pastes). We investigate the potential use of intrinsic amorphous silicon carbide passivating layers to sidestep this issue. The passivation obtained using device-relevant stacks of intrinsic amorphous silicon carbide with various carbon contents and doped amorphous silicon are evaluated, and their stability upon annealing assessed, amorphous silicon carbide being shown to surpass amorphous silicon for temperatures above 300°C. We demonstrate open-circuit voltage values over 700 mV for complete cells, and an improved temperature stability for the open-circuit voltage. Transport of electrons and holes across the hetero-interface is studied with complete cells having amorphous silicon carbide either on the hole-extracting side or on the electron-extracting side, and a better transport of holes than of electrons is shown. Also, due to slightly improved transparency, complete solar cells using an amorphous silicon carbide passivation layer on the hole-collecting side are demonstrated to show slightly better performances even prior to annealing than obtained with a standard amorphous silicon layer.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4928203},
journal = {Journal of Applied Physics},
number = 6,
volume = 118,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Aug 14 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Fri Aug 14 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}
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