Process Research of Polycrystalline Silicon Material (PROPSM). Quarterly report No. 1, November 8-December 31, 1983

Technical Report · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1984

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5192174· OSTI ID:5192174

Culik, J. S.

Recent reported results of hydrogen-passivated polycrystalline silicon solar cells are summarized. Most of the studies have been performed on very small grain or short minority-carrier diffusion length silicon. Hydrogenated solar cells fabricated from this material appear to have effective minority-carrier diffusion lengths that are still not very long, as shown by the open-circuit voltages of passivated cells that are still significantly less than those of single-crystal solar cells. The short-circuit current of solar cells fabricated from large-grain cast polycrystalline silicon is nearly equivalent to that of single-crystal cells, which indicates long bulk minority-carrier diffusion length. However, the open-circuit voltage, which is sensitive to grain boundary recombination, is 20 to 40 mV less. The goal of this program is to minimize the variations in open-circuit voltage and fill-factor that are caused by structural defects by passivating these defects using a hydrogenation process.

• Research Organization: Solarex Corp., Rockville, MD (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: NAS-7-100-956698
• OSTI ID: 5192174
• Report Number(s): DOE/JPL/956698-84/1; ON: DE84009314
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
PASSIVATION
PERFORMANCE
DIFFUSION LENGTH
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
HYDROGEN
POLYCRYSTALS
CRYSTALS
DIMENSIONS
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
LENGTH
NONMETALS
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
140501* - Solar Energy Conversion- Photovoltaic Conversion
360600 - Other Materials