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Journal of Applied Physics / Volume 110 / Issue 12 / ARTICLES / Device Physics

J. Appl. Phys. 110, 124511 (2011); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3669389 (7 pages)

Window layer with p doped silicon oxide for high Voc thin-film silicon n-i-p solar cells

Rémi Biron, Celine Pahud, Franz-Josef Haug, Jordi Escarré, Karin Söderström, and Christophe Ballif

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratory, 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland

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(Received 22 June 2011; accepted 11 November 2011; published online 21 December 2011)

We investigate the influence of the oxygen content in boron-doped nanocrystalline silicon oxide films (p-nc-SiOx) and introduce this material as window layer in n-i-p solar cells. The dependence of both, optical and electrical properties on the oxygen content is consistent with a bi-phase model which describes the p-nc-SiOx material as a mixture of an oxygen-rich (O-rich) phase and a silicon-rich (Si-rich) phase. We observe that increasing the oxygen content enhances the optical gap E04 while deteriorating the activation energy and the planar conductivity. These trends are ascribed to a higher volume fraction of the O-rich phase. Incorporated into n-i-p a-Si:H cells, p-nc-SiOx layers with moderate oxygen content yield open circuit voltage (Voc) up to 945 mV, which corresponds to a relative gain of 11% compared to an oxygen-free p-layer. As a similar gain is obtained on planar and on textured substrates, we attribute the increase in Voc to the higher work function of the p-nc-SiOx layer made possible by its wider band gap. These results are attained without changing the dilution ratio of the 250 nm thick intrinsic layer. We also observe an enhancement of 0.6 mA cm−2 in short circuit current density in the short wavelengths due to the higher transparency of the p-nc-SiOx layer. Finally, an initial efficiency of 9.9% for a single junction 250 nm a-Si:H n-i-p solar cell on plastic foil is achieved with the optimization of the p layer thickness, the doping ratio of the front transparent conductive oxide, and the optical properties of the back reflector.

© 2011 American Institute of Physics

Article Outline

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. EXPERIMENT DETAILS
  3. MATERIAL STUDY
  4. a-Si:H CELLS WITH p-SiOx WINDOW LAYER
    1. Oxygen content series in the nc-SiO x p-layer
    2. V oc increase on planar and textured substrates
  5. DISCUSSION
    1. Electrical transport in SiO x p-layers with silicon nanocrystallites
    2. V oc increase with the nc-SiO x p-layer in n-i-p a-Si:H cells
  6. CONCLUSION

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

boron, current density, electrical conductivity, elemental semiconductors, nanostructured materials, optical constants, semiconductor thin films, short-circuit currents, silicon, silicon compounds, solar cells, transparency, wide band gap semiconductors, work function

PACS

  • 88.40.jj

    Silicon solar cells

  • 78.20.Ci

    Optical constants (including refractive index, complex dielectric constant, absorption, reflection and transmission coefficients, emissivity)

  • 65.40.gh

    Work functions

  • 73.61.Le

    Other inorganic semiconductors

  • 78.67.Bf

    Nanocrystals, nanoparticles, and nanoclusters

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3669389

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0021-8979 (print)  
1089-7550 (online)

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Institute of Physics

For access to fully linked references, you need to log in.
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