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Highest-quality surface passivation of low-resistivity p-type silicon using stoichiometric PECVD silicon nitride

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  • Australian National University

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Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)585-591
Number of pages7
JournalSolar Energy Materials and Solar Cells
Volume65
Issue number1
Early online date28 Sept 2000
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2001
Externally publishedYes

Abstract

The surface passivation properties of silicon nitride (SiN) films fabricated by high-frequency direct plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) on low-resistivity (1 Ω cm) p-type silicon solar cell substrates have been investigated. The process gases used were ammonia and a mixture of silane and nitrogen. In order to find the optimum set of SiN deposition parameters, a large number of carrier lifetime test structures were prepared under different deposition conditions. The optimised deposition parameters resulted in outstandingly low surface recombination velocities (SRVs) below 10 cm/s. Interestingly, we find the lowest SRVs for stoichiometric SiN films, as indicated by a refractive index of 1.9. In former studies similarly low SRVs had only been obtained for silicon-rich SiN films. The fundamentally different passivation behaviour of our SiN films is attributed to the addition of nitrogen to the process gases.

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Highest-quality surface passivation of low-resistivity p-type silicon using stoichiometric PECVD silicon nitride. / Schmidt, Jan; Kerr, Mark.
In: Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol. 65, No. 1, 01.2001, p. 585-591.

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