Oxygen migration enthalpy likely limits oxide precipitate dissolution during tabula rasa
Abstract
In industrial silicon solar cells, oxygen-related defects lower device efficiencies by up to 20% (rel.). In order to mitigate these defects, a high-temperature homogenization anneal called tabula rasa (TR) that has been used in the electronics industry is now proposed for use in solar-grade wafers. This work addresses the kinetics of tabula rasa by elucidating the activation energy governing oxide precipitate dissolution, which is found to be 2.6 ± 0.5 eV. This value is consistent within uncertainty to the migration enthalpy of oxygen interstitials in silicon, implying TR to be kinetically limited by oxygen point-defect diffusion. Furthermore, this large activation energy is observed to limit oxygen precipitate dissolution during standard TR conditions, suggesting that more aggressive annealing conditions than conventionally used are required for complete bulk microdefect mitigation.
- Authors:
-
[1];
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Aalto Univ., Espoo (Finland)
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office; National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S
- Contributing Org.:
- SunShot National Laboratory Multiyear Partnership (SuNLaMP)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1400367
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1394672
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5J00-70316
Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308; EEC-1041895; 1122374; EE00030301
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Applied Physics Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 111; Journal Issue: 13; Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; chemical compounds; enthalpy; activation energies; solar cells; defect diffusion
Citation Formats
Looney, E. E., Laine, H. S., Youssef, A., Jensen, M. A., LaSalvia, V., Stradins, P., and Buonassisi, T. Oxygen migration enthalpy likely limits oxide precipitate dissolution during tabula rasa. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1063/1.4987144.
Looney, E. E., Laine, H. S., Youssef, A., Jensen, M. A., LaSalvia, V., Stradins, P., & Buonassisi, T. Oxygen migration enthalpy likely limits oxide precipitate dissolution during tabula rasa. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4987144
Looney, E. E., Laine, H. S., Youssef, A., Jensen, M. A., LaSalvia, V., Stradins, P., and Buonassisi, T. Mon .
"Oxygen migration enthalpy likely limits oxide precipitate dissolution during tabula rasa". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4987144. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1400367.
@article{osti_1400367,
title = {Oxygen migration enthalpy likely limits oxide precipitate dissolution during tabula rasa},
author = {Looney, E. E. and Laine, H. S. and Youssef, A. and Jensen, M. A. and LaSalvia, V. and Stradins, P. and Buonassisi, T.},
abstractNote = {In industrial silicon solar cells, oxygen-related defects lower device efficiencies by up to 20% (rel.). In order to mitigate these defects, a high-temperature homogenization anneal called tabula rasa (TR) that has been used in the electronics industry is now proposed for use in solar-grade wafers. This work addresses the kinetics of tabula rasa by elucidating the activation energy governing oxide precipitate dissolution, which is found to be 2.6 ± 0.5 eV. This value is consistent within uncertainty to the migration enthalpy of oxygen interstitials in silicon, implying TR to be kinetically limited by oxygen point-defect diffusion. Furthermore, this large activation energy is observed to limit oxygen precipitate dissolution during standard TR conditions, suggesting that more aggressive annealing conditions than conventionally used are required for complete bulk microdefect mitigation.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4987144},
journal = {Applied Physics Letters},
number = 13,
volume = 111,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Sep 25 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Mon Sep 25 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}
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Works referencing / citing this record:
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