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Silicon nitride/silicon oxide interlayers for solar cell passivating contacts based on PECVD amorphous silicon
Author(s) -
Yan Di,
Cuevas Andres,
Wan Yimao,
Bullock James
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
physica status solidi (rrl) – rapid research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.786
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1862-6270
pISSN - 1862-6254
DOI - 10.1002/pssr.201510325
Subject(s) - materials science , silicon , silicon nitride , nanocrystalline silicon , plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition , amorphous silicon , strained silicon , doping , optoelectronics , silicon oxide , oxide thin film transistor , locos , layer (electronics) , solar cell , nanotechnology , crystalline silicon , thin film transistor
This Letter demonstrates improved passivating contacts for silicon solar cells consisting of doped silicon films together with tunnelling dielectric layers. An improvement is demonstrated by replacing the commonly used silicon oxide interfacial layer with a silicon nitride/silicon oxide double interfacial layer. The paper describes the optimization of such contacts, including doping of a PECVD intrinsic a‐Si:H film by means of a thermal POCl 3 diffusion process and an exploration of the effect of the refractive index of the SiN x . The n + silicon passivating contact with SiN x /SiO x double layer achieves a better result than a single SiN x or SiO x layer, giving a recombination current parameter of ∼7 fA/cm 2 and a contact resistivity of ∼0.005 Ω cm 2 , respectively. These self‐passivating electron‐selective contacts open the way to high efficiency silicon solar cells. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)