Search Menu
DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
Search Scholarly Publications

Title: Zirconium oxide surface passivation of crystalline silicon

Abstract

This letter reports effective passivation of crystalline silicon (c-Si) surfaces by thermal atomic layer deposited zirconium oxide (ZrOx). 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 SiOx interfacial layer underneath an 18 nm ZrOx layer, consistent with ellipsometry measurements (~20 nm). Capacitance-voltage measurements show that the annealed ZrOx 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 ZrOx is consistent with the requirements of high efficiency silicon solar cells.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [2];  [3]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Australian National Univ., Canberra, ACT (Australia)
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  3. Australian National Univ., Canberra, ACT (Australia)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1477296
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Applied Physics Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 112; Journal Issue: 20; Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE

Citation Formats

Wan, Yimao, Bullock, James, Hettick, Mark, Xu, Zhaoran, Yan, Di, Peng, Jun, Javey, Ali, and Cuevas, Andres. Zirconium oxide surface passivation of crystalline silicon. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1063/1.5032226.
Copy to clipboard
Wan, Yimao, Bullock, James, Hettick, Mark, Xu, Zhaoran, Yan, Di, Peng, Jun, Javey, Ali, & Cuevas, Andres. Zirconium oxide surface passivation of crystalline silicon. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5032226
Copy to clipboard
Wan, Yimao, Bullock, James, Hettick, Mark, Xu, Zhaoran, Yan, Di, Peng, Jun, Javey, Ali, and Cuevas, Andres. Fri . "Zirconium oxide surface passivation of crystalline silicon". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5032226. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1477296.
Copy to clipboard
@article{osti_1477296,
title = {Zirconium oxide surface passivation of crystalline silicon},
author = {Wan, Yimao and Bullock, James and Hettick, Mark and Xu, Zhaoran and Yan, Di and Peng, Jun and Javey, Ali and Cuevas, Andres},
abstractNote = {This letter reports effective passivation of crystalline silicon (c-Si) surfaces by thermal atomic layer deposited zirconium oxide (ZrOx). 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 SiOx interfacial layer underneath an 18 nm ZrOx layer, consistent with ellipsometry measurements (~20 nm). Capacitance-voltage measurements show that the annealed ZrOx 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 ZrOx is consistent with the requirements of high efficiency silicon solar cells.},
doi = {10.1063/1.5032226},
journal = {Applied Physics Letters},
number = 20,
volume = 112,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {5}
}
Copy to clipboard
Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5032226
Copyright Statement
Other availability
Search WorldCat Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 6 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: (a) Cross-sectional TEM image showing an 18 nm ZrOx film with an ∼1.6 nm thick interfacial layer on c-Si and (b) XRD features of as-deposited and annealed ZrOx films.
All figures and tables (5 total)
Save / Share:
Export Metadata
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.

Works referenced in this record:

(Invited) Aluminum Oxide and Other ALD Materials for Si Surface Passivation
conference, January 2011

  • Dingemans, G.; Kessels, W. M. M.
  • 220th ECS Meeting, ECS Transactions
  • DOI: 10.1149/1.3633680

Experimental and theoretical determination of the electronic structure and optical properties of three phases of ZrO 2
journal, February 1994

Tantalum oxide/silicon nitride: A negatively charged surface passivation stack for silicon solar cells
journal, May 2015

  • Wan, Yimao; Bullock, James; Cuevas, Andres
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 20
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4921416

Light-enhanced surface passivation of TiO 2 -coated silicon : Light-enhanced surface passivation of TiO
journal, July 2011

  • Thomson, Andrew F.; McIntosh, Keith R.
  • Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 20, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1002/pip.1132

Ultralow surface recombination of c-Si substrates passivated by plasma-assisted atomic layer deposited Al2O3
journal, July 2006

  • Hoex, B.; Heil, S. B. S.; Langereis, E.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 89, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.2240736

Thermal stability of polycrystalline silicon electrodes on ZrO2 gate dielectrics
journal, August 2002

  • Perkins, Charles M.; Triplett, Baylor B.; McIntyre, Paul C.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 81, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1499513

Overview on SiN surface passivation of crystalline silicon solar cells
journal, January 2001

Surface passivation of c-Si by atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition of Al 2 O 3
journal, May 2012

  • Black, Lachlan E.; McIntosh, Keith R.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 20
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4718596

Low Surface Recombination Velocity by Low-Absorption Silicon Nitride on c-Si
journal, January 2013

Highest-quality surface passivation of low-resistivity p-type silicon using stoichiometric PECVD silicon nitride
journal, January 2001

Thermal activation and deactivation of grown-in defects limiting the lifetime of float-zone silicon
journal, April 2016

  • Grant, Nicholas E.; Markevich, Vladimir P.; Mullins, Jack
  • physica status solidi (RRL) - Rapid Research Letters, Vol. 10, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1002/pssr.201600080

Atomic-Layer-Deposited Aluminum and Zirconium Oxides for Surface Passivation of TiO 2 in High-Efficiency Organic Photovoltaics
journal, June 2014

  • Vasilopoulou, Maria; Georgiadou, Dimitra G.; Soultati, Anastasia
  • Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 4, Issue 15
  • DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201400214

Electrical and materials properties of ZrO2 gate dielectrics grown by atomic layer chemical vapor deposition
journal, April 2001

  • Perkins, Charles M.; Triplett, Baylor B.; McIntyre, Paul C.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 78, Issue 16
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1362331

Highly effective electronic passivation of silicon surfaces by atomic layer deposited hafnium oxide
journal, January 2017

  • Cui, Jie; Wan, Yimao; Cui, Yanfeng
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 110, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4973988

Synthesis of ZrO2 thin films by atomic layer deposition: growth kinetics, structural and electrical properties
journal, June 2002

High-κ dielectrics for advanced carbon-nanotube transistors and logic gates
journal, November 2002

  • Javey, Ali; Kim, Hyoungsub; Brink, Markus
  • Nature Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 4, p. 241-246
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmat769

ZrO 2 and Al 2 O 3 Thin Films on Ge(100) Grown by ALD: An XPS Investigation
journal, December 2011

  • Sygellou, Labrini; Gianneta, Violeta; Xanthopoulos, Nikolaos
  • Surface Science Spectra, Vol. 18, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1116/11.20100901

Passivation Properties of Atomic-Layer-Deposited Hafnium and Aluminum Oxides on Si Surfaces
journal, February 2012

  • Wang, Jun; Sadegh Mottaghian, Seyyed; Farrokh Baroughi, Mahdi
  • IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 59, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1109/TED.2011.2176943

Very low bulk and surface recombination in oxidized silicon wafers
journal, December 2001

Surface passivation of high-efficiency silicon solar cells by atomic-layer-deposited Al 2 O 3
journal, September 2008

  • Schmidt, J.; Merkle, A.; Brendel, R.
  • Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, Vol. 16, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1002/pip.823

Improved quantitative description of Auger recombination in crystalline silicon
journal, October 2012

Abruptness of a-Si:H∕c-Si interface revealed by carrier lifetime measurements
journal, January 2007

  • De Wolf, Stefaan; Kondo, Michio
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 90, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.2432297

Passivation of c-Si surfaces by ALD tantalum oxide capped with PECVD silicon nitride
journal, November 2015

Excellent c-Si surface passivation by low-temperature atomic layer deposited titanium oxide
journal, June 2014

  • Liao, Baochen; Hoex, Bram; Aberle, Armin G.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 25
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4885096

Electronic passivation of silicon surfaces by thin films of atomic layer deposited gallium oxide
journal, July 2014

  • Allen, T. G.; Cuevas, A.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4890737

Carrier-resolved photo-Hall effect
journal, October 2019

Low surface recombination velocity by low-absorption silicon nitride on c-Si
conference, June 2013

  • Wan, Yimao; McIntosh, Keith R.; Thomson, Andrew F.
  • 2012 IEEE 38th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) PART 2
  • DOI: 10.1109/pvsc-vol2.2013.6656792

Low surface recombination velocity by low-absorption silicon nitride on c-Si
conference, June 2012

  • Wan, Yimao; McIntosh, Keith R.; Thomson, Andrew F.
  • 2012 IEEE 38th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) PART 2
  • DOI: 10.1109/pvsc-vol2.2012.6656792

Low-Temperature Surface Passivation of Moderately Doped Crystalline Silicon by Atomic-Layer-Deposited Hafnium Oxide Films
journal, November 2012

  • Lin, F.; Hoex, B.; Koh, Y. H.
  • ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology, Vol. 2, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1149/2.026301jss
    Sort by:
    [ × clear filter / sort ]

    Works referencing / citing this record:

    Silicon surface passivation by transparent conductive zinc oxide
    journal, March 2019

    • van de Loo, B. W. H.; Macco, B.; Melskens, J.
    • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 125, Issue 10
    • DOI: 10.1063/1.5054166

    Chemical mist deposition of organic for efficient front- and back-PEDOT:PSS/crystalline Si heterojunction solar cells
    journal, May 2019

    • Islam, A. T. M. Saiful; Karim, Md. Enamul; Rajib, Arifuzzaman
    • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 114, Issue 19
    • DOI: 10.1063/1.5096579
      Sort by:
      [ × clear filter / sort ]

      Figures / Tables found in this record:

      FIG. 1 (p. 5)figure
      FIG. 2 (p. 6)figure
      FIG. 3 (p. 8)figure
      TABLE I (p. 10)table
      FIG. 4 (p. 11)figure
        [ × clear filter / sort ]
        Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.

        Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections: