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Improved metastability and performance of amorphous silicon solar cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2014

Takuya Matsui
Affiliation:
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8568 Japan
Adrien Bidiville
Affiliation:
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8568 Japan
Hitoshi Sai
Affiliation:
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8568 Japan
Takashi Suezaki
Affiliation:
Photovoltaic Power Generation Technology Research Association (PVTEC), 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8568 Japan Kaneka Corporation, 157-34 Kamiyoshidai, Toyooka, Hyougo, 668-0831 Japan
Mitsuhiro Matsumoto
Affiliation:
Photovoltaic Power Generation Technology Research Association (PVTEC), 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8568 Japan Panasonic Corporation, 3-4 Hikaridai, Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto, 619-0237 Japan
Kimihiko Saito
Affiliation:
Photovoltaic Power Generation Technology Research Association (PVTEC), 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8568 Japan Fukushima University, 1 Kanayagawa, Fukushima, Fukushima, 960-1296 Japan
Isao Yoshida
Affiliation:
Photovoltaic Power Generation Technology Research Association (PVTEC), 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8568 Japan
Michio Kondo
Affiliation:
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8568 Japan
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Abstract

We show that high-efficiency and low-degradation hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) p-i-n solar cells can be obtained by depositing absorber layers in a triode-type plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process. Although the deposition rate is relatively low (0.01-0.03 nm/s) compared to the conventional diode-type PECVD process (∼0.2 nm/s), the light-induced degradation in conversion efficiency of single-junction solar cell is substantially reduced (Δη/ηini∼10%) due to the suppression of light-induced metastable defects in the a-Si:H absorber layer. So far, we have attained an independently-confirmed stabilized efficiency of 10.11% for a 220-nm-thick a-Si:H solar cell which was light soaked under 1 sun illumination for 1000 hours at cell temperature of 50°C. We further demonstrate that stabilized efficiencies as high as 10% can be maintained even when the solar cell is thickened to >300 nm.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2014 

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References

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