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High Quality Amorphous Silicon Germanium Alloy Solar Cells Made by Hot-wire CVD at 10 Å/s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2011

Qi Wang ,
Eugene Iwaniczko ,
Jeffrey Yang ,
Kenneth Lord  and
Subhendu Guha
Qi Wang
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Lab. 1617 Cole Blvd. Golden CO
Eugene Iwaniczko
Affiliation:
National Renewable Energy Lab. 1617 Cole Blvd. Golden CO
Jeffrey Yang
Affiliation:
United Solar Systems Corp., 1100 W. Maple Rd. Troy, MI
Kenneth Lord
Affiliation:
United Solar Systems Corp., 1100 W. Maple Rd. Troy, MI
Subhendu Guha
Affiliation:
United Solar Systems Corp., 1100 W. Maple Rd. Troy, MI
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Abstract

High quality amorphous silicon germanium (a-SiGe:H) alloys have been obtained using the hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) from a gas mixture of SiH4, GeH4, and H2 at a deposition rate of ∼10 Å/s. Solar cells in a SS/n-i-p/ITO configuration are evaluated in which the n- and i-layers are deposited by HWCVD at NREL and the microcrystalline p-layer by conventional RF glow discharge in a separate reactor by United Solar. Effects of hydrogen dilution and step-wise bandgap profile have been studied and optimized. The best cell has an average optical bandgap of 1.6 eV and incorporates multi-bandgap steps where the narrow-most bandgap is near the p-i interface. J-V characteristics are measured under AM 1.5 illumination with a λ>530 nm filter. The best initial power output obtained exceeds 4 mW/cm2, which is usually used as an indicator for a good quality middle-gap cell. Double-junction cells are made on textured Ag/ZnO back reflectors. The bottom cell uses the optimized a-SiGe:H alloy cell by HWCVD, and the top cell uses an optimized a-Si:H cell near the amorphous-to-microcrystalline transition by PECVD at ∼1 Å/s. The best double-junction cell made to date exhibits an initial AM 1.5 active-area efficiency of 11.7%, and a stable efficiency after 1000 hours of one sun light soaking of 9.6%.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 664: Symposium A – Amorphous and Heterogeneous Silicon-Based Films-2001 , 2001 , A7.5
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2001

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References

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