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  4. In Situ Reflectometry and Diffraction Investigation of the Multiscale Structure of p-Type Polysilicon Passivating Contacts for c-Si Solar Cells
 
research article

In Situ Reflectometry and Diffraction Investigation of the Multiscale Structure of p-Type Polysilicon Passivating Contacts for c-Si Solar Cells

Morisset, Audrey  
•
Famprikis, Theodosios
•
Haug, Franz-Josef  
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April 13, 2022
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

The integration of passivating contacts based on a highly doped polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) layer on top of a thin silicon oxide (SiOx) layer has been identified as the next step to further increase the conversion efficiency of current mainstream crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells. However, the interrelation between the final properties of poly-Si/SiOx contacts and their fabrication process has not yet been fully unraveled, which is mostly due to the challenge of characterizing thin-film stacks with features in the nanometric range. Here, we apply in situ X-ray reflectometry and diffraction to investigate the multiscale (1 angstrom-100 nm) structural evolution of poly-Si contacts during annealing up to 900 degrees C. This allows us to quantify the densification and thinning of the poly-Si layer during annealing as well as to monitor the disruption of the thin SiOx layer at high temperature >800 degrees C. Moreover, results obtained on a broader range of thermal profiles, including firing with dwell times of a few seconds, emphasize the impact of high thermal budgets on poly-Si contacts' final properties and thus the importance of ensuring a good control of such high-temperature processes when fabricating c-Si solar cells integrating such passivating contacts. Overall, this study demonstrates the robustness of combining different X-ray elastic scattering techniques (here XRR and GIXRD), which present the unique advantage of being rapid, nondestructive, and applicable on a large sample area, to unravel the multiscale structural evolution of poly-Si contacts in situ during high-temperature processes.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1021/acsami.2c01225
Web of Science ID

WOS:000800533100051

Author(s)
Morisset, Audrey  
Famprikis, Theodosios
Haug, Franz-Josef  
Ingenito, Andrea  
Ballif, Christophe  
Bannenberg, Lars J.
Date Issued

2022-04-13

Publisher

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Published in
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
Volume

14

Issue

14

Start page

16413

End page

16423

Subjects

Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

•

Materials Science, Multidisciplinary

•

Science & Technology - Other Topics

•

Materials Science

•

c-si solar cells

•

passivating contacts

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poly-si

•

siox

•

x-ray reflectometry

•

in situ monitoring

•

annealing

•

rear contacts

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x-ray

•

junctions

•

quality

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
PV-LAB  
Available on Infoscience
June 20, 2022
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/188634
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