Amorphous/crystalline silicon interface defects induced by hydrogen plasma treatments

• Published in: Applied Physics Letters (ISSN: 0003-6951), vol. 102, p. 231604
• Melville: American Institute of Physics, 2013

Excellent amorphous/crystalline silicon interface passivation is of extreme importance for high-efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cells. This can be obtained by inserting hydrogen-plasma treatments during deposition of the amorphous silicon passivation layers. Prolonged hydrogen-plasmas lead to film etching. We report on the defect creation induced by such treatments: A severe drop in interface-passivation quality is observed when films are etched to a thickness of less than 8 nm. Detailed characterization shows that this decay is due to persistent defects created at the crystalline silicon surface. Pristine interfaces are preserved when the post-etching film thickness exceeds 8 nm, yielding high quality interface passivation. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.

Keywords: Silicon Heterojunction solar cell ; amorphous silicon passivation

Note:

IMT-NE Number : 714

Reference

• EPFL-ARTICLE-187064
• doi:10.1063/1.4811253
• View record in Web of Science

Record created on 2013-06-18, modified on 2017-05-10