Zirconium oxide surface passivation of crystalline silicon

Wan, Yimao; Bullock, James; Hettick, Mark; Xu, Zhaoran; Yan, Di; Peng, Jun; Javey, Ali; Cuevas, Andres

doi:10.1063/1.5032226

Title: Zirconium oxide surface passivation of crystalline silicon

Journal Article · 18 May 2018 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5032226 · OSTI ID:1477296

^[1]; Bullock, James ^[2]; Hettick, Mark ^[2]; Xu, Zhaoran ^[2]; Yan, Di ^[3]; Peng, Jun ^[3]; Javey, Ali ^[2]; Cuevas, Andres ^[3]

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Australian National Univ., Canberra, ACT (Australia)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Australian National Univ., Canberra, ACT (Australia)

This letter reports effective passivation of crystalline silicon (c-Si) surfaces by thermal atomic layer deposited zirconium oxide (ZrO_x). The optimum layer thickness and activation annealing conditions are determined to be 20 nm and 300 °C for 20 min. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy imaging shows an approximately 1.6 nm thick SiO_x interfacial layer underneath an 18 nm ZrO_x layer, consistent with ellipsometry measurements (~20 nm). Capacitance-voltage measurements show that the annealed ZrO_x film features a low interface defect density of 1.0 × 10¹¹cm^-2eV^-1 and a low negative film charge density of -6 × 10¹⁰cm^-2. Effective lifetimes of 673 μs and 1.1 ms are achieved on p-type and n-type 1 Ω cm undiffused c-Si wafers, respectively, corresponding to an implied open circuit voltage above 720 mV in both cases. The results demonstrate that surface passivation quality provided by ALD ZrO_x is consistent with the requirements of high efficiency silicon solar cells.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1477296

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 112, Issue 20; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 18 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (30)

(Invited) Aluminum Oxide and Other ALD Materials for Si Surface Passivation Dingemans, G.; Kessels, W. M. M. 220th ECS Meeting, ECS Transactions https://doi.org/10.1149/1.3633680	conference	January 2011
Experimental and theoretical determination of the electronic structure and optical properties of three phases of ZrO 2 French, R. H.; Glass, S. J.; Ohuchi, F. S. Physical Review B, Vol. 49, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.49.5133	journal	February 1994
Low-temperature Surface Passivation of Moderately Doped Crystalline Silicon by Atomic-layer-deposited Hafnium Oxide Films Lin, F.; Hoex, B.; Koh, Y. H. Energy Procedia, Vol. 15 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2012.02.010	journal	January 2012
Tantalum oxide/silicon nitride: A negatively charged surface passivation stack for silicon solar cells Wan, Yimao; Bullock, James; Cuevas, Andres Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4921416	journal	May 2015
Contactless determination of current–voltage characteristics and minority‐carrier lifetimes in semiconductors from quasi‐steady‐state photoconductance data Sinton, Ronald A.; Cuevas, Andres Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 69, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.117723	journal	October 1996
Light-enhanced surface passivation of TiO ₂ -coated silicon : Light-enhanced surface passivation of TiO Thomson, Andrew F.; McIntosh, Keith R. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 20, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.1132	journal	July 2011
Ultralow surface recombination of c-Si substrates passivated by plasma-assisted atomic layer deposited Al2O3 Hoex, B.; Heil, S. B. S.; Langereis, E. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 89, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2240736	journal	July 2006
Thermal stability of polycrystalline silicon electrodes on ZrO2 gate dielectrics Perkins, Charles M.; Triplett, Baylor B.; McIntyre, Paul C. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 81, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1499513	journal	August 2002
Overview on SiN surface passivation of crystalline silicon solar cells Aberle, Armin G. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 65, Issue 1-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0927-0248(00)00099-4	journal	January 2001
Surface passivation of c-Si by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition of Al ₂ O ₃ Black, Lachlan E.; McIntosh, Keith R. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4718596	journal	May 2012
Low Surface Recombination Velocity by Low-Absorption Silicon Nitride on c-Si Wan, Yimao; McIntosh, Keith R.; Thomson, Andrew F. IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Vol. 3, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2012.2215014	journal	January 2013
Highest-quality surface passivation of low-resistivity p-type silicon using stoichiometric PECVD silicon nitride Schmidt, Jan; Kerr, Mark Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 65, Issue 1-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0927-0248(00)00145-8	journal	January 2001
Thermal activation and deactivation of grown-in defects limiting the lifetime of float-zone silicon Grant, Nicholas E.; Markevich, Vladimir P.; Mullins, Jack physica status solidi (RRL) - Rapid Research Letters, Vol. 10, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1002/pssr.201600080	journal	April 2016
Atomic-Layer-Deposited Aluminum and Zirconium Oxides for Surface Passivation of TiO ₂ in High-Efficiency Organic Photovoltaics Vasilopoulou, Maria; Georgiadou, Dimitra G.; Soultati, Anastasia Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 4, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201400214	journal	June 2014
Electrical and materials properties of ZrO2 gate dielectrics grown by atomic layer chemical vapor deposition Perkins, Charles M.; Triplett, Baylor B.; McIntyre, Paul C. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 78, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1362331	journal	April 2001
Highly effective electronic passivation of silicon surfaces by atomic layer deposited hafnium oxide Cui, Jie; Wan, Yimao; Cui, Yanfeng Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 110, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4973988	journal	January 2017
Synthesis of ZrO2 thin films by atomic layer deposition: growth kinetics, structural and electrical properties Cassir, Michel; Goubin, Fabrice; Bernay, Cécile Applied Surface Science, Vol. 193, Issue 1-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-4332(02)00247-7	journal	June 2002
High-κ dielectrics for advanced carbon-nanotube transistors and logic gates Javey, Ali; Kim, Hyoungsub; Brink, Markus Nature Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 4, p. 241-246 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat769	journal	November 2002
ZrO ₂ and Al ₂ O ₃ Thin Films on Ge(100) Grown by ALD: An XPS Investigation Sygellou, Labrini; Gianneta, Violeta; Xanthopoulos, Nikolaos Surface Science Spectra, Vol. 18, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1116/11.20100901	journal	December 2011
Passivation Properties of Atomic-Layer-Deposited Hafnium and Aluminum Oxides on Si Surfaces Wang, Jun; Sadegh Mottaghian, Seyyed; Farrokh Baroughi, Mahdi IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 59, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2011.2176943	journal	February 2012
Very low bulk and surface recombination in oxidized silicon wafers Kerr, Mark J.; Cuevas, Andres Semiconductor Science and Technology, Vol. 17, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/0268-1242/17/1/306	journal	December 2001
Surface passivation of high-efficiency silicon solar cells by atomic-layer-deposited Al ₂ O ₃ Schmidt, J.; Merkle, A.; Brendel, R. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 16, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.823	journal	September 2008
Improved quantitative description of Auger recombination in crystalline silicon Richter, Armin; Glunz, Stefan W.; Werner, Florian Physical Review B, Vol. 86, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.165202	journal	October 2012
Abruptness of a-Si:H∕c-Si interface revealed by carrier lifetime measurements De Wolf, Stefaan; Kondo, Michio Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 90, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2432297	journal	January 2007
Passivation of c-Si surfaces by ALD tantalum oxide capped with PECVD silicon nitride Wan, Yimao; Bullock, James; Cuevas, Andres Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 142 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2015.05.032	journal	November 2015
Excellent c-Si surface passivation by low-temperature atomic layer deposited titanium oxide Liao, Baochen; Hoex, Bram; Aberle, Armin G. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4885096	journal	June 2014
Electronic passivation of silicon surfaces by thin films of atomic layer deposited gallium oxide Allen, T. G.; Cuevas, A. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4890737	journal	July 2014
Carrier-resolved photo-Hall effect Gunawan, Oki; Pae, Seong Ryul; Bishop, Douglas M. Nature, Vol. 575, Issue 7781 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1632-2	journal	October 2019
Low surface recombination velocity by low-absorption silicon nitride on c-Si Wan, Yimao; McIntosh, Keith R.; Thomson, Andrew F. 2012 IEEE 38th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) PART 2 https://doi.org/10.1109/pvsc-vol2.2012.6656792	conference	June 2012
Low-Temperature Surface Passivation of Moderately Doped Crystalline Silicon by Atomic-Layer-Deposited Hafnium Oxide Films Lin, F.; Hoex, B.; Koh, Y. H. ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology, Vol. 2, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1149/2.026301jss	journal	November 2012

Cited By (2)

Silicon surface passivation by transparent conductive zinc oxide van de Loo, B. W. H.; Macco, B.; Melskens, J. Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 125, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5054166	journal	March 2019
Chemical mist deposition of organic for efficient front- and back-PEDOT:PSS/crystalline Si heterojunction solar cells Islam, A. T. M. Saiful; Karim, Md. Enamul; Rajib, Arifuzzaman Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 114, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5096579	journal	May 2019