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Performance of μ-Si:H Solar Cells with Amorphous P-Layer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

Frank Siebke
Affiliation:
New Materials Research Center, SANYO Electric Co., Ltd, 1-18-13 Hashiridani, Hirakata, Osaka 573, Japan
Shigeo Yata
Affiliation:
New Materials Research Center, SANYO Electric Co., Ltd, 1-18-13 Hashiridani, Hirakata, Osaka 573, Japan
Yoshihiro Hishikawa
Affiliation:
New Materials Research Center, SANYO Electric Co., Ltd, 1-18-13 Hashiridani, Hirakata, Osaka 573, Japan
Makoto Tanaka
Affiliation:
New Materials Research Center, SANYO Electric Co., Ltd, 1-18-13 Hashiridani, Hirakata, Osaka 573, Japan
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Abstract

We investigated p-i-n solar cells with microcrystalline absorber but amorphous contact layers. Fill factor and open circuit voltage depend sensitively on the p/i interface. Using an optimized design of the p/i interface, cells with fill factors up to 65% and open circuit voltages of 0.45 V were deposited on amorphous p-layers. They are comparable to cells on micro- crystalline p-layers. A further increase of the open circuit voltage was achieved by variation of the p/i interface treatment but up to now it was accompanied by a decrease of the fill factor. We attribute this effect to a thin undoped amorphous layer at the p/i interface. Under non-optimized deposition conditions an amorphous instead of a microcrystalline silicon layer is grown at the p/i interface which can be detected by Raman measurements on cell structures. While the proper design of the p/i interface is crucial for the cell performance we did not observe significant differences between cells with amorphous and microcrystalline n-layers. The results reveal that the open circuit voltage is limited by the bulk properties of the undoped microcrystalline silicon.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1998

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References

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