The role of hydrogen in the formation of microcrystalline silicon

The growth mechanisms of microcrystalline silicon thin films at low temperatures (100-250°C) by plasma CVD are still a matter of debate. We have shown that ue-Si:H formation proceeds through four phases (incubation, nucleation, growth and steady state) and that hydrogen plays a key role in this process, particularly during the incubation phase in which hydrogen modifies the amorphous silicon network and forms a highly porous phase where nucleation takes place. In this study we combine in-situ ellipsometry and dark conductivity measurements with ex-situ high resolution transmission electron microscopy to improve our understanding of microcrystalline silicon formation

Silicon epitaxy below 200°C: Towards thin crystalline solar cells

International audienceLow temperature plasma processes provide a toolbox for etching, texturing and deposition of a wide range of materials. Here we present a bottom up approach to grow epitaxial crystalline silicon films (epi-Si) by standard RF-PECVD at temperatures below 200°C. Booth structural and electronic properties of the epitaxial layers are investigated. Proof of high crystalline quality is deduced from spectroscopic ellipsometry and HRTEM measurements. Moreover, we build heterojunction solar cells with intrinsic epitaxial absorber thickness in the range of a few microns, grown at 175 °C on highly doped (100) substrates, in the wafer equivalent approach. Achievement of a fill factor as high as 80 % is a proof that excellent quality of epitaxial layers can be produced at such low temperatures. While 8.5 % conversion efficiency has already been achieved for a 3.4 µm epitaxial silicon absorber, the possibility of reaching 15 % conversion efficiency with few microns epi-Si is discussed based on a detailed opto-electrical modeling of current devices

The configurational energy gap between amorphous and crystalline silicon

The crystallization enthalpy of pure amorphous silicon (a-Si) and hydrogenated a-Si was measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) for a large set of materials deposited from the vapour phase by different techniques. Although the values cover a wide range (200-480 J/g), the minimum value is common to all the deposition techniques used and close to the predicted minimum strain energy of relaxed a-Si (240 ± 25 J/g). This result gives a reliable value for the configurational energy gap between a-Si and crystalline silicon. An excess of enthalpy above this minimum value can be ascribed to coordination defects

Low temperature back-surface-field contacts deposited by Hot-wire CVD for heterojunction solar cells

The growing interest in using thinner wafers (< 200 μm) requires the development of low temperature passivation strategies for the back contact of heterojunction solar cells. In this work, we investigate low temperature deposited back contacts based on boron-doped amorphous silicon films obtained by Hot-Wire CVD. The influence of the deposition parameters and the use of an intrinsic buffer layer have been considered. The microstructure of the deposited thin films has been comprehensively studied by Spectroscopic Ellipsometry in the UV-visible range. The effective recombination velocity at the back surface has been measured by the Quasi-Steady-State Photoconductance technique. Complete double-side heterojunction solar cells (1 cm 2) have been fabricated and characterized by External Quantum Efficiency and current-voltage measurements. Total-area conversion efficiencies up to 14.5% were achieved in a fully low temperature process (< 200 °C)

Wafer-scale pulsed laser deposition of ITO for solar cells: reduced damage vs. interfacial resistance

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) used in solar cells must be optimized to achieve minimum parasitic absorption losses while providing sufficient lateral conductivity. Low contact resistance with the adjacent device layers and low damage to the substrate during deposition of the TCO are also important requirements to ensure high solar cell efficiencies. Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) has been proposed as an alternative low-damage TCO deposition technique on top of sensitive layers and interfaces in organic and perovskite solar cells but is yet to be studied for the more mature silicon technology. Focusing on the PLD deposition pressure as the key parameter to reduce damage, we developed tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) with a sheet resistance of 60 Ω □−1 at different pressures and implemented it in silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells. Buffer-free semi-transparent perovskite cells with the same PLD ITO electrodes were also fabricated for comparison. While in the perovskite cells increased ITO deposition pressure leads to an improved open circuit voltage and fill factor indicative of damage reduction, SHJ cells with PLD ITO at all conditions maintained a high passivation quality, but increased pressures lead to high series resistance. Transmission electron microscopy and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry confirmed the formation of a parasitic SiOx at the ITO/a-Si:H interface of the SHJ cell causing a transport barrier. The optimized ITO films with the highest carrier density were able to obtain >21% SHJ efficiency with 75 nm-thick PLD ITO. Moreover, reducing the ITO thickness to ∼45 nm and using TiOx for optical compensation enables fabrication of SHJ devices with reduced indium consumption and efficiencies of >22%

Characterization of silicon heterojunctions for solar cells

Conductive-probe atomic force microscopy (CP-AFM) measurements reveal the existence of a conductive channel at the interface between p-type hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and n-type crystalline silicon (c-Si) as well as at the interface between n-type a-Si:H and p-type c-Si. This is in good agreement with planar conductance measurements that show a large interface conductance. It is demonstrated that these features are related to the existence of a strong inversion layer of holes at the c-Si surface of (p) a-Si:H/(n) c-Si structures, and to a strong inversion layer of electrons at the c-Si surface of (n) a-Si:H/(p) c-Si heterojunctions. These are intimately related to the band offsets, which allows us to determine these parameters with good precision

Anomalous crystallization of hydrogenated amorphous silicon during fast heating ramps

Thermal crystallization experiments carried out using calorimetry on several a-Si:H materials with different microstructures are reported. The samples were crystallized during heating ramps at constant heating rates up to 100 K/min. Under these conditions, crystallization takes place above 700 C and progressively deviates from the standard kinetics. In particular, two crystallization processes were detected in conventional a-Si:H, which reveal an enhancement of the crystallization rate. At100 K/min, such enhancement is consistent with a diminution of the crystallization time by a factor of 7. In contrast, no systematic variation of the resulting grain size was observed. Similar behavior was also detected in polymorphous silicon and silicon nanoparticles, thus showing that it is characteristic of a variety of hydrogenated amorphous silicon materials

The role of hydrogen in the formation of microcrystalline silicon

The growth mechanisms of microcrystalline silicon thin films at low temperatures (100-250°C) by plasma CVD are still a matter of debate. We have shown that ue-Si:H formation proceeds through four phases (incubation, nucleation, growth and steady state) and that hydrogen plays a key role in this process, particularly during the incubation phase in which hydrogen modifies the amorphous silicon network and forms a highly porous phase where nucleation takes place. In this study we combine in-situ ellipsometry and dark conductivity measurements with ex-situ high resolution transmission electron microscopy to improve our understanding of microcrystalline silicon formation