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  4. Effects of Work Function and Electron Affinity on the Performance of Carrier-Selective Contacts in Silicon Solar Cells Using ZnSnx Ge-1 (-) N-x(2) as a Case Study
 
research article

Effects of Work Function and Electron Affinity on the Performance of Carrier-Selective Contacts in Silicon Solar Cells Using ZnSnx Ge-1 (-) N-x(2) as a Case Study

Febba, Davi
•
Paratte, Vincent  
•
Antognini, Luca  
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November 1, 2021
Ieee Journal Of Photovoltaics

This work reports the electrical characterization of ZnSnx Ge1 - xN2 (ZTGN) layers (10% < x < 90%) deposited on glass by combinatorial sputtering and further assesses the performance of silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells featuring them as electron-selective contacts. Bandgap, dark conductivity, and the activation energy of the latter were found to significantly change between Sn- and Ge-rich samples. When applying ZTGN layers as electron-selective contacts for SHJ solar cells, poor solar cell performance was observed, with surprisingly similar results despite changes in material properties. From analysis and modeling of the current-voltage characteristics using several device structures, we show that the work function of the electron-selective contact lies around 4.35 eV for all investigated Sn and Ge contents, which is too high to form an excellent electron-selective contact. By comparing different solar cell architectures, we could further identify that the Ge-rich layer imposes an additional barrier to electron extraction, independently of its poor selectivity, due to its low conductivity. Doping of Ge-rich ZTGN, thus, appears as the most relevant approach to build efficient devices with a ZTGN contact layer.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1109/JPHOTOV.2021.3109585
Web of Science ID

WOS:000709079100008

Author(s)
Febba, Davi
Paratte, Vincent  
Antognini, Luca  
Dreon, Julie  
Hurni, Julien  
Thomet, Jonathan  
Rubinger, Rero
Bortoni, Edson
Ballif, Christophe  
Boccard, Mathieu  
Date Issued

2021-11-01

Publisher

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC

Published in
Ieee Journal Of Photovoltaics
Volume

11

Issue

6

Start page

1350

End page

1357

Subjects

Energy & Fuels

•

Materials Science, Multidisciplinary

•

Physics, Applied

•

Materials Science

•

Physics

•

bandstructure

•

carrier-selective contact

•

nitrides

•

silicon heterojunction (shj)

•

solar cells

•

zngen2

•

znsnn2

•

dopant-free

•

heterojunction

•

parameters

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
PV-LAB  
Available on Infoscience
November 6, 2021
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/182757
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