TY - JOUR

T1 - Contacting a single nanometer-sized pinhole in the interfacial oxide of a poly-silicon on oxide (POLO) solar cell junction

AU - Bayerl, Paul

AU - Folchert, Nils

AU - Bayer, Johannes

AU - Dzinnik, Marvin

AU - Hollemann, Christina

AU - Brendel, Rolf

AU - Peibst, Robby

AU - Haug, Rolf J.

N1 - Funding Information: This work was funded by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), Germany (under project 26+ with the number FKZ0325827A), the State of Lower Saxony, Germany (via the Hannover School for Nanotechnology and the School for Contacts in Nanosystems), and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy–EXC 2123 Quantum Frontiers, 390837967. The authors thank Bianca Gehring for performing the TMAH etching and SEM analysis, Sören Schäfer, Felix Haase, and Jan Krügener for valuable discussions, and Raymond Zienriss, Annika Raugewitz, Hilke Fischer, and Sabine Schmidt for their help with sample processing. We thank Oliver Kerker for helping with the processing.

PY - 2021/7/16

Y1 - 2021/7/16

N2 - The electrical current through poly-Si on oxide (POLO) solar cells is mediated by tunneling and by nanometer-sized pinholes in the interfacial oxide. To distinguish the two processes, a POLO junction with a measured pinhole density of 1 × 107 cm−2 is contacted by different contact areas ranging from 1 μm2 to 2.5 × 105 μm2, and the temperature-dependent current–voltage curves are measured for the different devices. Model regressions to the measured curves, their temperature dependence, and the quantized value of contact resistances indicate average numbers of pinholes per device corresponding to the expected pinhole density. For the small contacts, the different transport processes can be studied separately, which facilitates further improvements in respect to the present-day POLO junctions. Single-pinhole transport is found for one of the contacts with an area of 1 μm2. Random telegraph noise observed for this device in the current–voltage characteristics shows a high sensitivity to single charges.

AB - The electrical current through poly-Si on oxide (POLO) solar cells is mediated by tunneling and by nanometer-sized pinholes in the interfacial oxide. To distinguish the two processes, a POLO junction with a measured pinhole density of 1 × 107 cm−2 is contacted by different contact areas ranging from 1 μm2 to 2.5 × 105 μm2, and the temperature-dependent current–voltage curves are measured for the different devices. Model regressions to the measured curves, their temperature dependence, and the quantized value of contact resistances indicate average numbers of pinholes per device corresponding to the expected pinhole density. For the small contacts, the different transport processes can be studied separately, which facilitates further improvements in respect to the present-day POLO junctions. Single-pinhole transport is found for one of the contacts with an area of 1 μm2. Random telegraph noise observed for this device in the current–voltage characteristics shows a high sensitivity to single charges.

KW - pinhole transport

KW - POLO junction

KW - record energy conversion efficiency

KW - silicon solar cell

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85103413902&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/pip.3417

DO - 10.1002/pip.3417

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85103413902

VL - 29

SP - 936

EP - 942

JO - Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications

JF - Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications

SN - 1062-7995

IS - 8

ER -