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Size-Controlled Silicon Quantum Dots Superlattice for Thin-Film Solar Cell Applications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Yasuyoshi Kurokawa
Affiliation:
kurokawa.y.aa@m.titech.ac.jp, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physical Electronics, 2-12-1-S9-9, O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8552, Japan, +81-3-5734-2662, +81-3-5734-2897
Shinsuke Miyajima
Affiliation:
miyajima.s.aa@m.titech.ac.jp, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Department of Physical Electronics, 2-12-1-S9-9, O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8552, Japan
Akira Yamada
Affiliation:
yamada.a.ac@m.titech.ac.jp, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Department of Physical Electronics, 2-12-1-S9-9, O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8552, Japan
Makoto Konagai
Affiliation:
konagai.m.aa@m.titech.ac.jp, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Department of Physical Electronics, 2-12-1-S9-9, O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8552, Japan
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Abstract

We prepared size-controlled silicon quantum dots superlattices (Si-QDSLs) by thermal annealing of stoichiometric hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H)/silicon rich hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (a-Si1+xC:H) multilayers for thin-film solar cell applications. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) observation revealed that the size of silicon quantum dots can be controlled by the thickness of the a-Si1+xC:H layers. It was found that hydrogen plasma treatment (HPT) significantly enhanced the photoluminescence (PL) of the Si-QDSLs. From the results of the PL measurement, the bandgap of the Si-QDSLs can be controlled from 1.1 eV to 1.6 eV by varying the diameter of silicon quantum dots. ESR measurement indicated that HPT reduced the defect density in a Si-QDSL from 1.83 ×1019 to 1.67 sup1018 cm-3.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2008

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