Plasma-initiated rehydrogenation of amorphous silicon to increase the temperature processing window of silicon heterojunction solar cells
Abstract
The dehydrogenation of intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) at temperatures above approximately 300°C degrades its ability to passivate silicon wafer surfaces. This limits the temperature of post-passivation processing steps during the fabrication of advanced silicon heterojunction or silicon-based tandem solar cells. We demonstrate that a hydrogen plasma can rehydrogenate intrinsic a-Si:H passivation layers that have been dehydrogenated by annealing. The hydrogen plasma treatment fully restores the effective carrier lifetime to several milliseconds in textured crystalline siliconwafers coated with 8-nm-thick intrinsic a-Si:H layers after annealing at temperatures of up to 450°C. Plasma-initiated rehydrogenation also translates to complete solar cells: A silicon heterojunction solar cell subjected to annealing at 450°C (following intrinsic a-Si:H deposition) had an open-circuit voltage of less than 600 mV, but an identical cell that received hydrogen plasma treatment reached a voltage of over 710 mV and an efficiency of over 19%.
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1354913
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1264787; OSTI ID: 1354908; OSTI ID: 1354911
- Grant/Contract Number:
- EE0006335
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Applied Physics Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 109; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY; surface passivation; passivation; plasma temperature; solar cells; silicon
Citation Formats
Shi, Jianwei, Boccard, Mathieu, and Holman, Zachary. Plasma-initiated rehydrogenation of amorphous silicon to increase the temperature processing window of silicon heterojunction solar cells. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web. doi:10.1063/1.4958831.
Shi, Jianwei, Boccard, Mathieu, & Holman, Zachary. Plasma-initiated rehydrogenation of amorphous silicon to increase the temperature processing window of silicon heterojunction solar cells. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4958831
Shi, Jianwei, Boccard, Mathieu, and Holman, Zachary. Mon .
"Plasma-initiated rehydrogenation of amorphous silicon to increase the temperature processing window of silicon heterojunction solar cells". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4958831. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1354913.
@article{osti_1354913,
title = {Plasma-initiated rehydrogenation of amorphous silicon to increase the temperature processing window of silicon heterojunction solar cells},
author = {Shi, Jianwei and Boccard, Mathieu and Holman, Zachary},
abstractNote = {The dehydrogenation of intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) at temperatures above approximately 300°C degrades its ability to passivate silicon wafer surfaces. This limits the temperature of post-passivation processing steps during the fabrication of advanced silicon heterojunction or silicon-based tandem solar cells. We demonstrate that a hydrogen plasma can rehydrogenate intrinsic a-Si:H passivation layers that have been dehydrogenated by annealing. The hydrogen plasma treatment fully restores the effective carrier lifetime to several milliseconds in textured crystalline siliconwafers coated with 8-nm-thick intrinsic a-Si:H layers after annealing at temperatures of up to 450°C. Plasma-initiated rehydrogenation also translates to complete solar cells: A silicon heterojunction solar cell subjected to annealing at 450°C (following intrinsic a-Si:H deposition) had an open-circuit voltage of less than 600 mV, but an identical cell that received hydrogen plasma treatment reached a voltage of over 710 mV and an efficiency of over 19%.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4958831},
journal = {Applied Physics Letters},
number = 3,
volume = 109,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Mon Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}
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Works referencing / citing this record:
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