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Control of Materials and Interfaces in μc-Si:H-based Solar Cells Grown at High Rate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 August 2011

Yasushi Sobajima ,
Chitose Sada ,
Akihisa Matsuda  and
Hiroaki Okamoto
Yasushi Sobajima
Affiliation:
Department of Systems Innovations, Graduate School of Engineering Science Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-8531, Japan The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) - Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST)
Chitose Sada
Affiliation:
Department of Systems Innovations, Graduate School of Engineering Science Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-8531, Japan The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) - Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST)
Akihisa Matsuda
Affiliation:
Department of Systems Innovations, Graduate School of Engineering Science Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-8531, Japan The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) - Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST)
Hiroaki Okamoto
Affiliation:
Department of Systems Innovations, Graduate School of Engineering Science Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-8531, Japan The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) - Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST)
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Abstract

Growth process of microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) using plasma-enhanced chemicalvapor- deposition method under high-rate-growth condition has been studied for the control of optoelectronic properties in the resulting materials. We have found two important things for the spatial-defect distribution in the resulting μc-Si:H through a precise dangling-bond-density measurement, e. g., (1) dangling-bond defects are uniformly distributed in the bulk region of μc- Si:H films independent of their crystallite size and (2) large number of dangling bonds are located at the surface of μc-Si:H especially when the film is deposited at high growth rate. Starting procedure of film growth has been investigated as an important process to control the dangling-bond-defect density in the bulk region of resulting μc-Si:H through the change in the electron temperature by the presence of particulates produced at the starting period of the plasma. Deposition of Si-compress thin layer on μc-Si:H grown at high rate followed by thermal annealing has been proposed as an effective method to reduce the defect density at the surface of resulting μc-Si:H. Utilizing the starting-procedure-controlling method and the compress-layerdeposition method together with several interface-controlling methods, we have demonstrated the fabrication of high conversion-efficiency (9.27%) substrate-type (n-i-p) μc-Si:H solar cells whose intrinsic μc-Si:H layer is deposited at high growth rate of 2.3 nm/sec.

Keywords

photovoltaicplasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) (deposition)Si
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1321: Symposium A – Amorphous and Polycrystalline Thin-Film Silicon Science and Technology , 2011 , mrss11-1321-a02-01
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2011

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