TY - GEN
T1 - Crystalline silicon passivation with amorphous silicon carbide layers
AU - Boccard, Mathieu
AU - Jackson, Alec
AU - Holman, Zachary
N1 - Funding Information:
The information, data, or work presented herein was funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Program, under Award Number DE-EE0006335.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 IEEE.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Amorphous silicon enables the fabrication of very high-efficiency crystalline-silicon-based solar cells due to its combination of excellent passivation of the crystalline silicon surface and permeability to electrical charges. Yet, amongst other limitations, the passivation it provides degrades upon high-temperature processes, limiting possible post-deposition fabrication possibilities (e.g. forcing the use of low-temperature silver pastes). We previously evidenced the superior temperature stability of low-carbon-content intrinsic amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiCx:H) passivating layers to sidestep this issue, and investigate here in more details the reason for the improved temperature stability. The passivation from intrinsic a-SiCx:H layers is shown to first improved upon annealing, and then degrade past 350 °C. The initial passivation can be improved and the degradation postponed by capping the a-SiCx:H layer by an a-Si:H film. We compare here the passivation provided by stacks of a-Si:H and a-SiCx:H, and investigate the hydrogen bonding and content of these films.
AB - Amorphous silicon enables the fabrication of very high-efficiency crystalline-silicon-based solar cells due to its combination of excellent passivation of the crystalline silicon surface and permeability to electrical charges. Yet, amongst other limitations, the passivation it provides degrades upon high-temperature processes, limiting possible post-deposition fabrication possibilities (e.g. forcing the use of low-temperature silver pastes). We previously evidenced the superior temperature stability of low-carbon-content intrinsic amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiCx:H) passivating layers to sidestep this issue, and investigate here in more details the reason for the improved temperature stability. The passivation from intrinsic a-SiCx:H layers is shown to first improved upon annealing, and then degrade past 350 °C. The initial passivation can be improved and the degradation postponed by capping the a-SiCx:H layer by an a-Si:H film. We compare here the passivation provided by stacks of a-Si:H and a-SiCx:H, and investigate the hydrogen bonding and content of these films.
KW - Amorphous silicon
KW - Amorphous silicon carbide
KW - Hydrogen
KW - Passivation
KW - Temperature stability
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U2 - 10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366233
DO - 10.1109/PVSC.2017.8366233
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85048507927
T3 - 2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2017
SP - 3309
EP - 3314
BT - 2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2017
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 44th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialist Conference, PVSC 2017
Y2 - 25 June 2017 through 30 June 2017
ER -
