Enhanced zone-melting recrystallization for crystalline silicon thin-film solar-cells

Abstract

For zone-melting recrystallization of thin Si films the effects of preheating temperature and focussed lamp intensity on solidification front morphology and defect:structure are studied. Subgrain boundaries are the dominating defect type and limit the base diffusion length. In-situ observation of the melt zone shows that cellular growth leads to films with regular spaced subgrain boundaries and low defect density. These films are preferentially (100)-orientated. Crystalline Si thin film solar cells with a random pyramid front side texture were processed from this material resulting in efficiencies up to 12.8%. (orig.)Available from: http://www.ise.fhg.de / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman