Amorphous silicon enhanced metal-insulator-semiconductor contacts for silicon solar cells

J. Bullock*, A. Cuevas, D. Yan, B. Demaurex, A. Hessler-Wyser, Stefaan De Wolf

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

Carrier recombination at the metal-semiconductor contacts has become a significant obstacle to the further advancement of high-efficiency diffused-junction silicon solar cells. This paper provides the proof-of-concept of a procedure to reduce contact recombination by means of enhanced metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) structures. Lightly diffused n+ and p+ surfaces are passivated with SiO2/a-Si:H and Al2O3/a-Si:H stacks, respectively, before the MIS contacts are formed by a thermally activated alloying process between the a-Si:H layer and an overlying aluminum film. Transmission/scanning transmission electron microscopy (TEM/STEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy are used to ascertain the nature of the alloy. Idealized solar cell simulations reveal that MIS(n+) contacts, with SiO2 thicknesses of ∼1.55nm, achieve the best carrier-selectivity producing a contact resistivity ρc of ∼3 mΩ cm2 and a recombination current density J0c of ∼40 fA/cm2. These characteristics are shown to be stable at temperatures up to 350°C. The MIS(p+) contacts fail to achieve equivalent results both in terms of thermal stability and contact characteristics but may still offer advantages over directly metallized contacts in terms of manufacturing simplicity.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number163706
JournalJournal of Applied Physics
Volume116
Issue number16
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2014

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy(all)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Amorphous silicon enhanced metal-insulator-semiconductor contacts for silicon solar cells'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this