Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 91-93 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | Physica Status Solidi - Rapid Research Letters |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue number | 3-4 |
| Publication status | Published - 7 Apr 2010 |
Abstract
Amorphous silicon nitride (SiNx) layers are widely used for the electronic passivation of surfaces in Si solar cells. How-ever, measurements have consistently shown that the effec-tive recombination velocity Seff increases with decreasing excess carrier density Δn < 1015 cm-3 at acceptor densities below 1017 cm-3. This poor performance is not observed at surfaces diffused with dopants, which requires an additional high temperature process during cell fabrication. Understanding the poor performance at low Δn may therefore provide strate gies for cost reduction in solar cell processing. This paper presents a detailed quantitative analysis of this effect. It is concluded that the lifetime is reduced to a value near 1 μs in a 100-500 nm thin region underneath the SiNx layer. We predict, that to avoid this effect, a mere tenfold reduction of the density of defect states in this region is sufficient. A possible explanation of this effect are defects caused by H-termination during wafer pretreatment.
Keywords
- Modeling, Photoconduction, Silicon, Solar cells
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Materials Science(all)
- General Materials Science
- Physics and Astronomy(all)
- Condensed Matter Physics
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In: Physica Status Solidi - Rapid Research Letters, Vol. 4, No. 3-4, 07.04.2010, p. 91-93.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Modelling c-Si/SiNx interface recombination by surface damage
AU - Steingrube, Silke
AU - Altermatt, Pietro P.
AU - Schmidt, Jan
AU - Brendel, Rolf
PY - 2010/4/7
Y1 - 2010/4/7
N2 - Amorphous silicon nitride (SiNx) layers are widely used for the electronic passivation of surfaces in Si solar cells. How-ever, measurements have consistently shown that the effec-tive recombination velocity Seff increases with decreasing excess carrier density Δn < 1015 cm-3 at acceptor densities below 1017 cm-3. This poor performance is not observed at surfaces diffused with dopants, which requires an additional high temperature process during cell fabrication. Understanding the poor performance at low Δn may therefore provide strate gies for cost reduction in solar cell processing. This paper presents a detailed quantitative analysis of this effect. It is concluded that the lifetime is reduced to a value near 1 μs in a 100-500 nm thin region underneath the SiNx layer. We predict, that to avoid this effect, a mere tenfold reduction of the density of defect states in this region is sufficient. A possible explanation of this effect are defects caused by H-termination during wafer pretreatment.
AB - Amorphous silicon nitride (SiNx) layers are widely used for the electronic passivation of surfaces in Si solar cells. How-ever, measurements have consistently shown that the effec-tive recombination velocity Seff increases with decreasing excess carrier density Δn < 1015 cm-3 at acceptor densities below 1017 cm-3. This poor performance is not observed at surfaces diffused with dopants, which requires an additional high temperature process during cell fabrication. Understanding the poor performance at low Δn may therefore provide strate gies for cost reduction in solar cell processing. This paper presents a detailed quantitative analysis of this effect. It is concluded that the lifetime is reduced to a value near 1 μs in a 100-500 nm thin region underneath the SiNx layer. We predict, that to avoid this effect, a mere tenfold reduction of the density of defect states in this region is sufficient. A possible explanation of this effect are defects caused by H-termination during wafer pretreatment.
KW - Modeling
KW - Photoconduction
KW - Silicon
KW - Solar cells
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77950884736&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/pssr.201004023
DO - 10.1002/pssr.201004023
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77950884736
VL - 4
SP - 91
EP - 93
JO - Physica Status Solidi - Rapid Research Letters
JF - Physica Status Solidi - Rapid Research Letters
SN - 1862-6254
IS - 3-4
ER -