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Modulation of electrical characteristics at a Ni‐contaminated silicon grain boundary by engineering the metal precipitates
Author(s) -
Jiang Tingting,
Yu Xuegong,
Gu Xin,
Rozgonyi George,
Yang Deren
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201329252
Subject(s) - materials science , grain boundary , impurity , silicon , contamination , annealing (glass) , metal , metallurgy , chemical engineering , microstructure , chemistry , ecology , organic chemistry , engineering , biology
The effect of various forms of Ni contaminants on the electrical properties of a silicon grain‐boundary (GB) formed by direct bonding technology has been investigated in this paper. It is found that compared to that of the clean GB, the density of interface states and their majority carrier capture cross‐section for the as‐contaminated GB is significantly increased, due to the interaction of Ni impurities with the interface defects. However, after Ni impurities precipitating at the GB by a post‐annealing, the degrading effect of the Ni contamination on the GB electrical characteristics is reduced again. These results show the detrimental effect of a metal‐contaminated GB on the electrical properties of multicrystalline silicon solar cells can be minimized by engineering the metal precipitate density and size distribution.