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Hydrogenated amorphous silicon germanium by Hot Wire CVD as an alternative for microcrystalline silicon in tandem and triple junction solar cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2014

L.W. Veldhuizen
Affiliation:
Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Department of Applied Physics, Plasma & Materials Processing, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Y. Kuang
Affiliation:
Physics of Devices, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, High Tech Campus 2, 5656 AE Eindhoven, The Netherlands
N.J. Bakker
Affiliation:
Energy research Center of the Netherlands (ECN), ECN-Solliance, High Tech Campus Building 2, 5656 AE Eindhoven, The Netherlands
C.H.M. van der Werf
Affiliation:
Energy research Center of the Netherlands (ECN), ECN-Solliance, High Tech Campus Building 2, 5656 AE Eindhoven, The Netherlands
S.-J. Yun
Affiliation:
Thin Film Solar Cell Technology Team, Convergence Components and Materials Research Laboratory, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, 218 Gajeongno, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-700, Republic of Korea
R.E.I. Schropp
Affiliation:
Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Department of Applied Physics, Plasma & Materials Processing, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands Energy research Center of the Netherlands (ECN), ECN-Solliance, High Tech Campus Building 2, 5656 AE Eindhoven, The Netherlands
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Abstract

We study hydrogenated amorphous silicon germanium (a-SiGe:H) deposited by HWCVD for the use as low band gap absorber in multijunction junction solar cells. We deposited layers with Tauc optical band gaps of 1.21 to 1.56 eV and studied the hydrogen bonding with FTIR for layers that were deposited at several reaction pressures. For our reaction conditions, we found an optimal reaction pressure of 38 µbar. The material that is obtained under these conditions does not meet all device quality requirements for a-SiGe:H, which is, as we hypothesize, caused by the presence of He that is used to dilute the GeH4 source gas. We present an initial single junction n-i-p solar cell with a Tauc optical band gap of 1.45 eV and a short circuit current density of 18.7 mA/cm2.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2014 

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References

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