Amorphous silicon carbide passivating layers for crystalline-silicon-based heterojunction solar cells
- School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-5706 (United States)
Amorphous silicon enables the fabrication of very high-efficiency crystalline-silicon-based solar cells due to its combination of excellent passivation of the crystalline silicon surface and permeability to electrical charges. Yet, amongst other limitations, the passivation it provides degrades upon high-temperature processes, limiting possible post-deposition fabrication possibilities (e.g., forcing the use of low-temperature silver pastes). We investigate the potential use of intrinsic amorphous silicon carbide passivating layers to sidestep this issue. The passivation obtained using device-relevant stacks of intrinsic amorphous silicon carbide with various carbon contents and doped amorphous silicon are evaluated, and their stability upon annealing assessed, amorphous silicon carbide being shown to surpass amorphous silicon for temperatures above 300 °C. We demonstrate open-circuit voltage values over 700 mV for complete cells, and an improved temperature stability for the open-circuit voltage. Transport of electrons and holes across the hetero-interface is studied with complete cells having amorphous silicon carbide either on the hole-extracting side or on the electron-extracting side, and a better transport of holes than of electrons is shown. Also, due to slightly improved transparency, complete solar cells using an amorphous silicon carbide passivation layer on the hole-collecting side are demonstrated to show slightly better performances even prior to annealing than obtained with a standard amorphous silicon layer.
- OSTI ID:
- 22494741
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 118, Issue 6; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GENERAL PHYSICS
ANNEALING
CARBON
DOPED MATERIALS
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ELECTRON TRANSFER
HETEROJUNCTIONS
HOLES
LAYERS
OPACITY
PASSIVATION
PERMEABILITY
SILICON
SILICON CARBIDES
SILVER
SOLAR CELLS
STACKING FAULTS
SURFACES
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0065-0273 K
TEMPERATURE RANGE 0400-1000 K