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Nanostructured Silicon Oxide Dual-Function Layer in Amorphous Silicon Based Solar Cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2012

Tining Su ,
Baojie Yan ,
Laura Sivec ,
Guozhen Yue ,
Jessica Owens-Mawson ,
Jeffrey Yang  and
Subhendu Guha
Tining Su
Affiliation:
United Solar Ovonic LLC, 1100 W Maple Rd, Troy, MI 48084, U.S.A.
Baojie Yan
Affiliation:
United Solar Ovonic LLC, 1100 W Maple Rd, Troy, MI 48084, U.S.A.
Laura Sivec
Affiliation:
United Solar Ovonic LLC, 1100 W Maple Rd, Troy, MI 48084, U.S.A.
Guozhen Yue
Affiliation:
United Solar Ovonic LLC, 1100 W Maple Rd, Troy, MI 48084, U.S.A.
Jessica Owens-Mawson
Affiliation:
United Solar Ovonic LLC, 1100 W Maple Rd, Troy, MI 48084, U.S.A.
Jeffrey Yang
Affiliation:
United Solar Ovonic LLC, 1100 W Maple Rd, Troy, MI 48084, U.S.A.
Subhendu Guha
Affiliation:
United Solar Ovonic LLC, 1100 W Maple Rd, Troy, MI 48084, U.S.A.
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Abstract

We report the results of using n-type hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon oxide alloy (nc-SiOx:H) in hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) and amorphous silicon germanium alloy (a-SiGe:H) single-junction solar cells. We used VHF glow discharge to deposit nc-SiOx:H layers on various substrates for material characterizations. We also used VHF glow discharge to deposit the intrinsic layer in nc-Si:H solar cells. RF glow discharge was used for the deposition of the doped layers and the intrinsic layer in a-SiGe:H solar cells. Various substrates such as stainless steel (SS), Ag coated SS, and ZnO/Ag coated SS were used for different cell structures. We found that by using nc-SiOx:H to replace the ZnO and the a-Si:H n-layer in nc-Si:H solar cells, the cell structure is greatly simplified, while the cell performances remain nearly identical to those made using the conventional n-i-p structure on standard ZnO/Ag BR’s. Solar cells with nc-SiOx:H as the n layer directly deposited on textured Ag show similar quantum efficiency (QE) as the n-i-p cells on ZnO/Ag BRs. In both cases, QE is higher than that in the n-i-p cells made directly on Ag coated SS. This effect is probably caused by the shift of surface plasmon-polariton resonance frequency due to the difference in index of refraction of ZnO, nc-SiOx:H, and Si.

Type
Articles
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1426: Symposium A – Amorphous and Polycrystalline Thin-Film Silicon Science and Technology—2012 , 2012 , pp. 69 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2012

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References

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