Microcrystalline silicon solar cells with passivated interfaces for high open‐circuit voltage. Issue 4 (2nd February 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hänni, Simon; Boccard, Mathieu; Bugnon, Grégory; Despeisse, Matthieu; Schüttauf, Jan‐Willem; Haug, Franz‐Josef; Meillaud, Fanny; Ballif, Christophe
• Is Part Of: Physica status solidi. Volume 212:Issue 4(2015:Apr.)
• Page Start: 840
• Page End: 845
• Publication Date: 2015-02-02
• Subjects: Solid state physics -- Periodicals; Solids -- Industrial applications -- Periodicals; 530.41
• DOI: 10.1002/pssa.201431708
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1862-6300

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec id="pssa201431708-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <p>We introduce passivating hetero‐interfaces in single‐junction microcrystalline silicon (μc‐Si:H) solar cells. We investigate the effect of different i–n layer stacks in thin μc‐Si:H devices, in which recombination is significant at the interfaces as well as in the bulk material. By applying amorphous silicon passivating layers at the μc‐Si:H i–n interface, we show a device with a high open‐circuit voltage (<italic>V</italic>_oc) of 608 mV, for a standard Raman crystalline fraction of the i‐layer (&gt;50%). This <italic>V</italic>_oc is the highest reported value for a state‐of‐the‐art μc‐Si:H device made by plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition. We also report an efficiency of 9.45% for a solar cell with an absorber layer as thin as 650 nm on an area greater than 1 cm², and show with a simple crystalline silicon model that for such thin μc‐Si:H devices or μc‐Si:H devices with a very high bulk‐material quality, well‐mastered interfaces and doped layers are of paramount importance for high efficiency.</p> </sec> </abstract>