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p-type nc-SiOx:H emitter layer for silicon heterojunction solar cells grown by rf-PECVD

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2015

Henriette A. Gatz ,
Yinghuan Kuang ,
Marcel A. Verheijen ,
Jatin K. Rath ,
Wilhelmus M.M. (Erwin) Kessels  and
Ruud E. I. Schropp
Henriette A. Gatz
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Yinghuan Kuang
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Marcel A. Verheijen
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Jatin K. Rath
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Wilhelmus M.M. (Erwin) Kessels
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands Solliance, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Ruud E. I. Schropp
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands Solliance, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
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Abstract

Silicon heterojunction solar cells (SHJ) with thin intrinsic layers are well known for their high efficiencies. A promising way to further enhance their excellent characteristics is to enable more light to enter the crystalline silicon (c-Si) absorber of the cell while maintaining a simple cell configuration. Our approach is to replace the amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) emitter layer with a more transparent nanocrystalline silicon oxide (nc-SiOx:H) layer. In this work, we focus on optimizing the p-type nc-SiOx:H material properties, grown by radio frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (rf PECVD), on an amorphous silicon layer.

20 nm thick nanocrystalline layers were successfully grown on a 5 nm a-Si:H layer. The effect of different ratios of trimethylboron to silane gas flow rates on the material properties were investigated, yielding an optimized material with a conductivity in the lateral direction of 7.9×10-4 S/cm combined with a band gap of E04 = 2.33 eV. Despite its larger thickness as compared to a conventional window a-Si:H p-layer, the novel layer stack of a-Si:H(i)/nc-SiOx:H(p) shows significantly enhanced transmission compared to the stack with a conventional a-Si:H(p) emitter. Altogether, the chosen material exhibits promising characteristics for implementation in SHJ solar cells.

Keywords

thin filmoxideplasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) (deposition)
Type
Articles
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1770: Symposium A – Emerging Silicon Science and Technology , 2015 , pp. 7 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2015 

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References

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