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A Low Resistance Calcium/Reduced Titania Passivated Contact for High Efficiency Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells
Author(s) -
Allen Thomas G.,
Bullock James,
Jeangros Quentin,
Samundsett Christian,
Wan Yimao,
Cui Jie,
HesslerWyser Aïcha,
De Wolf Stefaan,
Javey Ali,
Cuevas Andres
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
advanced energy materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.08
H-Index - 220
eISSN - 1614-6840
pISSN - 1614-6832
DOI - 10.1002/aenm.201602606
Subject(s) - materials science , contact resistance , crystalline silicon , silicon , energy conversion efficiency , solar cell , work function , electrical resistivity and conductivity , resistive touchscreen , passivation , metal , contact area , optoelectronics , nanotechnology , composite material , metallurgy , electrical engineering , engineering , layer (electronics)
Recent advances in the efficiency of crystalline silicon (c‐Si) solar cells have come through the implementation of passivated contacts that simultaneously reduce recombination and resistive losses within the contact structure. In this contribution, low resistivity passivated contacts are demonstrated based on reduced titania (TiO x ) contacted with the low work function metal, calcium (Ca). By using Ca as the overlying metal in the contact structure we are able to achieve a reduction in the contact resistivity of TiO x passivated contacts of up to two orders of magnitude compared to previously reported data on Al/TiO x contacts, allowing for the application of the Ca/TiO x contact to n‐type c‐Si solar cells with partial rear contacts. Implementing this contact structure on the cell level results in a power conversion efficiency of 21.8% where the Ca/TiO x contact comprises only ≈6% of the rear surface of the solar cell, an increase of 1.5% absolute compared to a similar device fabricated without the TiO x interlayer.