Silicon nanowire (SiNW)-based solar cells on glass substrates have been fabricated by wet electroless chemical etching (using silver nitrate and hydrofluoric acid) of 2.7 microm multicrystalline p(+)nn(+) doped silicon layers thereby creating the nanowire structure. Low reflectance (<10%, at 300-800 nm) and a strong broadband optical absorption (>90% at 500 nm) have been measured. The highest open-circuit voltage (V(oc)) and short-circuit current density (J(sc)) for AM1.5 illumination were 450 mV and 40 mA/cm(2), respectively at a maximum power conversion efficiency of 4.4%.
Rapid thermal annealing by, e.g., laser scanning of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films is of interest for device improvement and for development of new device structures for solar cell and large area display application. For well controlled annealing of such multilayers, precise knowledge of temperature and/or hydrogen diffusion length in the heated material is required but unavailable so far. In this study, we explore the use of deuterium (D) and hydrogen (H) interdiffusion during laser scanning (employing a continuous wave laser at 532 nm wavelength) to characterize both quantities. The evaluation of temperature from hydrogen diffusion data requires knowledge of the high temperature (T > 500 °C) deuterium-hydrogen (D-H) interdiffusion Arrhenius parameters for which, however, no experimental data exist. Using data based on recent model considerations, we find for laser scanning of single films on glass substrates a broad scale agreement with experimental temperature data obtained by measuring the silicon melting point and with calculated data using a physical model as well as published work. Since D-H interdiffusion measures hydrogen diffusion length and temperature within the silicon films by a memory effect, the method is capable of determining both quantities precisely also in multilayer structures, as is demonstrated for films underneath metal contacts. Several applications are discussed. Employing literature data of laser-induced temperature rise, laser scanning is used to measure the H diffusion coefficient at T > 500 °C in a-Si:H. The model-based high temperature hydrogen diffusion parameters are confirmed with important implications for the understanding of hydrogen diffusion in the amorphous silicon material.
We fabricated an efficient hybrid solar cell by spin coating poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene):polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) on planar multicrystalline Si (mc-Si) thin films. The only 5 μm thin Si absorber layers were prepared by diode laser crystallization of amorphous Si deposited by electron beam evaporation on glass. On these absorber layers, we studied the effect of SiOx and Al2O3 terminated Si surfaces. The short circuit density and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the mc-Si/Al2O3/PEDOT:PSS solar cell increase from 20.6 to 25.4 mA/cm2 and from 7.3% to 10.3%, respectively, as compared to the mc-Si/SiOx/PEDOT:PSS cell. Al2O3 lowers the interface recombination and improves the adhesion of the polymer film on the hydrophobic mc-Si thin film. Open circuit voltages up to 604 mV were reached. This study demonstrates the highest PCE so far of a hybrid solar cell with a planar thin film Si absorber.
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