Hydrogen-Assisted Defect Engineering of Doped Poly-Si Films for Passivating Contact Solar Cells
Abstract
Hydrogen-assisted defect engineering, via a hydrogenated silicon nitride (SiNx:H) capping layer, on doped polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) passivating-contact structures, is explored using complementary techniques. The hydrogen treatment universally improves the passivation quality of poly-Si/SiOx stacks on all samples investigated. Meanwhile, their contact resistivity remains very low at ~6 m$$\Omega$$cm2. Moreover, the nature of charge carrier recombination within the poly-Si films is also investigated by means of photoluminescence. On planar c-Si substrates, the poly-Si films emit two broad photoluminescence peaks ~850-1050 nm and ~1300-1500 nm. The former is the characteristic peak of the hydrogenated amorphous Si (a-Si:H) phase and only appears after the treatment, demonstrating that i) a significant amount of hydrogen has been driven into the poly-Si film and ii) an amorphous phase is present within it. The second peak originates from sub-bandgap radiative defects inside the poly-Si films and increases after the treatment, suggesting a suppression of their non-radiative recombination channels. For films deposited on textured c-Si substrates, there is a disrupted oxide boundary, preventing a build-up of excess carriers inside the films and leading to quenching of the film luminescence.
- Authors:
-
- Australian National Univ., Canberra, ACT (Australia)
- 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; Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA); Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP); Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1579320
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5K00-74683
Journal ID: ISSN 2574-0962
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308; RND017
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- ACS Applied Energy Materials
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 2; Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 2574-0962
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; hydrogenation; doped polycrystalline silicon; amorphous silicon; passivating contacts; photoluminescence
Citation Formats
Truong, Thien N., Yan, Di, Samundsett, Christian, Liu, Anyao, Harvey, Steven P., Young, Matthew, Ding, Zetao, Tebyetekerwa, Mike, Kremer, Felipe, Al-Jassim, Mowafak, Cuevas, Andres, Macdonald, Daniel, and Nguyen, Hieu T. Hydrogen-Assisted Defect Engineering of Doped Poly-Si Films for Passivating Contact Solar Cells. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1021/acsaem.9b01771.
Truong, Thien N., Yan, Di, Samundsett, Christian, Liu, Anyao, Harvey, Steven P., Young, Matthew, Ding, Zetao, Tebyetekerwa, Mike, Kremer, Felipe, Al-Jassim, Mowafak, Cuevas, Andres, Macdonald, Daniel, & Nguyen, Hieu T. Hydrogen-Assisted Defect Engineering of Doped Poly-Si Films for Passivating Contact Solar Cells. United States. doi:10.1021/acsaem.9b01771.
Truong, Thien N., Yan, Di, Samundsett, Christian, Liu, Anyao, Harvey, Steven P., Young, Matthew, Ding, Zetao, Tebyetekerwa, Mike, Kremer, Felipe, Al-Jassim, Mowafak, Cuevas, Andres, Macdonald, Daniel, and Nguyen, Hieu T. Tue .
"Hydrogen-Assisted Defect Engineering of Doped Poly-Si Films for Passivating Contact Solar Cells". United States. doi:10.1021/acsaem.9b01771. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1579320.
@article{osti_1579320,
title = {Hydrogen-Assisted Defect Engineering of Doped Poly-Si Films for Passivating Contact Solar Cells},
author = {Truong, Thien N. and Yan, Di and Samundsett, Christian and Liu, Anyao and Harvey, Steven P. and Young, Matthew and Ding, Zetao and Tebyetekerwa, Mike and Kremer, Felipe and Al-Jassim, Mowafak and Cuevas, Andres and Macdonald, Daniel and Nguyen, Hieu T.},
abstractNote = {Hydrogen-assisted defect engineering, via a hydrogenated silicon nitride (SiNx:H) capping layer, on doped polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) passivating-contact structures, is explored using complementary techniques. The hydrogen treatment universally improves the passivation quality of poly-Si/SiOx stacks on all samples investigated. Meanwhile, their contact resistivity remains very low at ~6 m$\Omega$cm2. Moreover, the nature of charge carrier recombination within the poly-Si films is also investigated by means of photoluminescence. On planar c-Si substrates, the poly-Si films emit two broad photoluminescence peaks ~850-1050 nm and ~1300-1500 nm. The former is the characteristic peak of the hydrogenated amorphous Si (a-Si:H) phase and only appears after the treatment, demonstrating that i) a significant amount of hydrogen has been driven into the poly-Si film and ii) an amorphous phase is present within it. The second peak originates from sub-bandgap radiative defects inside the poly-Si films and increases after the treatment, suggesting a suppression of their non-radiative recombination channels. For films deposited on textured c-Si substrates, there is a disrupted oxide boundary, preventing a build-up of excess carriers inside the films and leading to quenching of the film luminescence.},
doi = {10.1021/acsaem.9b01771},
journal = {ACS Applied Energy Materials},
number = 12,
volume = 2,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {11}
}