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Ultra‐thin aluminum oxide as an interface passivation layer for ZnO/p‐Si heterojunction solar cells
Author(s) -
Jeong Kwang Seok,
Kwon Hyuk Min,
Lee Hi Deok,
Lee Ga Won
Publication year - 2014
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.201330572
Subject(s) - passivation , materials science , heterojunction , optoelectronics , atomic layer deposition , saturation current , reverse leakage current , aluminium , diode , layer (electronics) , aluminum oxide , oxide , silicon , carrier lifetime , schottky diode , nanotechnology , voltage , composite material , metallurgy , electrical engineering , engineering
In this paper, aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) grown by a self‐limiting atomic layer deposition (ALD) method is suggested as an interface passivation layer (IPL) to decrease the electrical recombination loss at the ZnO/p‐Si interface. The reverse leakage current ( I R ) of ZnO/p‐Si heterojunction diodes is reduced after inserting optimized Al 2 O 3 films between ZnO/p‐Si. From lifetime measurements, the effective recombination velocity trends consistently with the reverse saturation current ( I S ) of the devices tested. Also, from temperature‐dependent current–voltage ( I – V ) and diverse physical measurements, the I R is shown to be closely related to free carrier trapping sites (Zn i and V o ) near the half value of the difference in the work functions of Si and ZnO. Therefore, the experimental results show that the electrical recombination loss at the ZnO/p‐Si interface can be effectively reduced by inserting an optimized Al 2 O 3 IPL between the ZnO and p‐Si.