Abstract
We describe a study on the critical seeding step for preparation of nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) p-i-n type solar cells by single-chamber RF-PECVD on native SnO 2 coated glass superstrates. A novel seeding scheme using closed-chamber (CC) plasma has proved effective in eliminating the Si:H incubation layer and reduce optical loss without using ZnO coating. This seeding process does not accumulate a film. Rather, it modifies the surface region of a pre-deposited film. The efficacy of this approach is, however, hindered both by dopant cross-contamination and process sensitivity to the degree of substrate texture. This method is compared with conventional p-layer seeding using non-static plasma which, on ZnO-coated SnO 2, has resulted in 6.5% single cells with ZnO/Al back contact. Also compared is i-layer seeding. Our 'near-the-edge' nc-Si single junction cells show excellent stability under light and in the dark, without post-deposition oxidation. An 8.7% a-Si/nc-Si tandem solar cell (post light soaking) has been confirmed by NREL.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1420-1423 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Conference Record of the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference |
State | Published - 2005 |
Externally published | Yes |
Event | 31st IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 2005 - Lake Buena Vista, FL, United States Duration: Jan 3 2005 → Jan 7 2005 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Control and Systems Engineering
- Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering