Growth and properties of ZnO:Al on textured glass for thin film solar cells

Aluminium induced texturing (AIT) method has been used to texture glass substrates in order to enhance the photon absorption in thin film solar cells. The resultant glass roughness has been analyzed by varying the AIT process parameters and it has been found that the deposition method of Al is a decisive factor in tuning the texture. Two types of textures, a soft (texture E) and a rough texture (texture S), were achieved from the thermally evaporated and sputtered Al layers through AIT process. Aluminium-doped zinc oxide (AZO) layers of different thickness were deposited over both textures and over smooth glass. Haze values above 30% were obtained for texture S+AZO and above 10% for texture E+AZO. The resultant morphologies were free from sharp edges or deep valleys and the transparency and the resistivity values were also good enough to be used as front contact for thin film solar cells. In order to demonstrate the light absorption enhancement in a solar cell device, 200 nm of a-Si:H followed by 300nm of Ag were grown over the textured and smooth substrates with AZO, and an optical absorption enhancement of 35% for texture E and 53% for texture S was obtained in comparison to the smooth substrate

Low cost vacuum web coating system

A low cost solution for a mini roll to roll web coating system is presented. The design is very simple and involves only three active rolls, two winding/unwinding rolls and a cooling drum. No extra load cells are used to control the web winding mechanism operation. To reach such result it has been necessary to develop an adequate control solution which acts on the two winding roll torques to make the web moving properly. The effect of the control mechanism is to increase electronically the total mechanical inertia of the roll to roll system. In such manner the stick-slip motion of the web, induced by the dry friction affecting the rotation of the rolls, is avoided. The effectiveness of this strategy has been corroborated: a first test showed that the web moves continuously while it is kept tense; in a second experiment a-Si material has been deposited by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition technique. For that material the optical transmission measurements at several points over the deposited area indicate a satisfactory uniformity. The presented tests validate the goodness of the new control method

Technological solution for the automatic replacement of the catalytic filaments in HWCVD

The degradation of the catalytic filaments is the main factor limiting the industrial implementation of the hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) technique. Up to now, no solution has been found to protect the catalytic filaments used in HWCVD without compromising their catalytic activity. Probably, the definitive solution relies on the automatic replacement of the catalytic filaments. In this work, the results of the validation tests of a new apparatus for the automatic replacement of the catalytic filaments are reported. The functionalities of the different parts have been validated using a 0.2 mm diameter tungsten filament under uc-Si:H deposition conditions

Degradation of thin tungsten filaments at high temperature in HWCVD

The degradation of the filaments is usually studied by checking the silicidation or carbonization status of the refractory metal used as catalysts, and their effects on the structural stability of the filaments. In this paper, it will be shown that the catalytic stability of a filament heated at high temperature is much shorter than its structural lifetime. The electrical resistance of a thin tungsten filament and the deposition rate of the deposited thin film have been monitored during the filament aging. It has been found that the deposition rate drops drastically once the quantity of dissolved silicon in the tungsten reaches the solubility limit and the silicides start precipitating. This manuscript concludes that the catalytic stability is only guaranteed for a short time and that for sufficiently thick filaments it does not depend on the filament radius

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

Investigations on doping of amorphous and nano-crystalline silicon films deposited by catalytic chemical vapour deposition

Hydrogenated amorphous and nanocrystalline silicon, deposited by catalytic chemical vapour deposition, have been doped during deposition by the addition of diborane and phosphine in the feed gas, with concentrations in the region of 1%. The crystalline fraction, dopant concentration and electrical properties of the films are studied. The nanocrystalline films exhibited a high doping efficiency, both for n and p doping, and electrical characteristics similar to those of plasma-deposited films. The doping efficiency of n-type amorphous silicon is similar to that obtained for plasma-deposited electronic-grade amorphous silicon, whereas p-type layers show a doping efficiency of one order of magnitude lower. A higher deposition temperature of 450°C was required to achieve p-type films with electrical characteristics similar to those of plasma-deposited films

Yttrium oxide passivation of porous silicon for improved photoluminescence and optoelectronic properties

This paper reports on the effect of yttrium oxide as a novel treatment to improve the photoluminescence intensity and stability of porous silicon (PS). Yttrium oxide (Y2O3) was incorporated into the PS layers by impregnation method using a saturated aqueous solution. The penetration of Yttrium into the PS microstructure was examined using the Energy Dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) and the Backscattered Electron Detector (BED-C) for composition imaging and analysis. The morphology of the front surface was studied using a Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM). The deposited yttrium oxide onto the PS layers was thermally activated to passivate efficiently the silicon dangling bonds, and prevent the porous silicon from huge oxidation. The photoluminescence (PL) peak intensity of impregnated PS was increased noticeably compared to the as-prepared untreated PS. Unlike the as-prepared PS photoluminescence dependence with aging, the yttrium-passivated PS layers PL peak shows no shifts during aging allowing a high stability. Furthermore, we obtained a significant improvement of the effective minority lifetime (Teff) after a short anneal at 600 °C, while increasing the temperature reduces noticeably the passivation properties. The improved surface passivation experienced after the thermal annealing can be ascribed to yttrium diffusion into the PS layer, with a resulting redistribution of yttrium oxide and subsequent passivation of silicon dangling bonds in the sub-interface region, this was confirmed by EDS analysis. The internal quantum efficiency (IQE) measurements were performed to study the optoelectronic properties of the processed monocrystalline silicon substrates

Thin silicon films ranging from amorphous to nanocrystalline obtained by Hot-Wire CVD

In this paper, we have presented results on silicon thin films deposited by hot-wire CVD at low substrate temperatures (200 °C). Films ranging from amorphous to nanocrystalline were obtained by varying the filament temperature from 1500 to 1800 °C. A crystalline fraction of 50% was obtained for the sample deposited at 1700 °C. The results obtained seemed to indicate that atomic hydrogen plays a leading role in the obtaining of nanocrystalline silicon. The optoelectronic properties of the amorphous material obtained in these conditions are slightly poorer than the ones observed in device-grade films grown by plasma-enhanced CVD due to a higher hydrogen incorporation (13%)

Spectral analysis of the angular distribution function of back reflectors for thin film silicon solar cells

Nowadays, one of the most important challenges to enhance the efficiency of thin film silicon solar cells is to increase the short circuit intensity by means of optical confinement methods, such as textured back-reflector structures. In this work, two possible textured structures to be used as back reflectors for n-i-p solar cells have been optically analyzed and compared to a smooth one by using a system which is able to measure the angular distribution function (ADF) of the scattered light in a wide spectral range (350-1000 nm). The accurate analysis of the ADF data corresponding to the reflector structures and to the μc-Si:H films deposited onto them allows the optical losses due to the reflector absorption and its effectiveness in increasing light absorption in the μc-Si:H layer, mainly at long wavelengths, to be quantified

Domain matched epitaxial growth of Bi1.5Zn1Nb1.5O7 thin films by pulsed laser deposition

Bi1.5Zn1Nb1.5O7 (BZN) epitaxial thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition on Al2O3 with a double ZnO buffer layer through domain matching epitaxy (DME) mechanism. The pole figure analysis and reciprocal space mapping revealed the single crystalline nature of the thin film. The pole figure analysis also shows a 60º twinning for the (222) oriented crystals. Sharp intense spots in the SAED pattern also indicate the high crystalline nature of BZN thin film. The Fourier filtered HRTEM images of the BZN-ZnO interface confirms the domain matched epitaxy of BZN with ZnO buffer. An electric field dependent dielectric tunability of 68% was obtained for the BZN thin films with inter digital capacitors patterned over the film