The silane depletion fraction as an indicator for the amorphous/crystalline silicon interface passivation quality

A. Descoeudres; L. Barraud; R. Bartlome; G. Choong; Stefaan De Wolf; F. Zicarelli; C. Ballif

doi:10.1063/1.3511737

The silane depletion fraction as an indicator for the amorphous/crystalline silicon interface passivation quality

A. Descoeudres^*, L. Barraud, R. Bartlome, G. Choong, Stefaan De Wolf, F. Zicarelli, C. Ballif

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

95 Scopus citations

Abstract

In silicon heterojunction solar cells, thin amorphous silicon layers passivate the crystalline silicon wafer surfaces. By using in situ diagnostics during plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), the authors report how the passivation quality of such layers directly relate to the plasma conditions. Good interface passivation is obtained from highly depleted silane plasmas. Based upon this finding, layers deposited in a large-area very high frequency (40.68 MHz) PECVD reactor were optimized for heterojunction solar cells, yielding aperture efficiencies up to 20.3% on 4 cm² cells.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	183505
Journal	Applied Physics Letters
Volume	97
Issue number	18
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3511737
State	Published - Nov 1 2010
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge P. Bôle Rothen for her contribution to the work, Y. Andrault for wafer preparation, and Roth & Rau Switzerland for many fruitful discussions. This work was supported by the Axpo Naturstrom Fond and by the European Commission (FP7 project HETSI, Grant No. 211821).

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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Cite this

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title = "The silane depletion fraction as an indicator for the amorphous/crystalline silicon interface passivation quality",

abstract = "In silicon heterojunction solar cells, thin amorphous silicon layers passivate the crystalline silicon wafer surfaces. By using in situ diagnostics during plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), the authors report how the passivation quality of such layers directly relate to the plasma conditions. Good interface passivation is obtained from highly depleted silane plasmas. Based upon this finding, layers deposited in a large-area very high frequency (40.68 MHz) PECVD reactor were optimized for heterojunction solar cells, yielding aperture efficiencies up to 20.3% on 4 cm2 cells.",

author = "A. Descoeudres and L. Barraud and R. Bartlome and G. Choong and {De Wolf}, Stefaan and F. Zicarelli and C. Ballif",

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AU - Descoeudres, A.

AU - Barraud, L.

AU - Bartlome, R.

AU - Choong, G.

AU - De Wolf, Stefaan

AU - Zicarelli, F.

AU - Ballif, C.

N1 - Funding Information: The authors acknowledge P. Bôle Rothen for her contribution to the work, Y. Andrault for wafer preparation, and Roth & Rau Switzerland for many fruitful discussions. This work was supported by the Axpo Naturstrom Fond and by the European Commission (FP7 project HETSI, Grant No. 211821).

PY - 2010/11/1

Y1 - 2010/11/1

N2 - In silicon heterojunction solar cells, thin amorphous silicon layers passivate the crystalline silicon wafer surfaces. By using in situ diagnostics during plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), the authors report how the passivation quality of such layers directly relate to the plasma conditions. Good interface passivation is obtained from highly depleted silane plasmas. Based upon this finding, layers deposited in a large-area very high frequency (40.68 MHz) PECVD reactor were optimized for heterojunction solar cells, yielding aperture efficiencies up to 20.3% on 4 cm2 cells.

AB - In silicon heterojunction solar cells, thin amorphous silicon layers passivate the crystalline silicon wafer surfaces. By using in situ diagnostics during plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), the authors report how the passivation quality of such layers directly relate to the plasma conditions. Good interface passivation is obtained from highly depleted silane plasmas. Based upon this finding, layers deposited in a large-area very high frequency (40.68 MHz) PECVD reactor were optimized for heterojunction solar cells, yielding aperture efficiencies up to 20.3% on 4 cm2 cells.

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The silane depletion fraction as an indicator for the amorphous/crystalline silicon interface passivation quality

Abstract

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