This work reports on a comparative study comprising three transition metal oxides, MoO 3 , WO 3 and V 2 O 5 , acting as front p-type emitters for n-type crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells. Owing to their high work functions (>5 eV) and wide energy band gaps, these oxides act as transparent hole-selective contacts with semiconductive properties that are determined by oxygen-vacancy defects (MoO 3-x ), as confirmed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In the fabricated hybrid structures, 15 nm thick transition metal oxide layers were deposited by vacuum thermal evaporation. Of all three devices, the V 2 O 5 /n-silicon heterojunction performed the best with a conversion efficiency of 15.7% and an open-circuit voltage of 606 mV, followed by MoO 3 (13.6%) and WO 3 (12.5%). These results bring into view a new silicon heterojunction solar cell concept with advantages such as the absence of toxic dopant gases and a simplified low-temperature fabrication process.

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) have recently attracted interest as an alternative to boron/phosphorous doped layers in crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells. In this work, the interface between n-type c-Si (n-Si) and three thermally evaporated TMOs (MoO 3 , WO 3 and V 2 O 5 ) was investigated by transmission electron microscopy and secondary ion-mass/x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. For the oxides studied, chemical passivation of n-Si was attributed to an ultra-thin (1.9 -2.8 nm) SiO x~1.5 interlayer formed by chemical reaction, leaving oxygen-deficient species (MoO, WO 2 and VO 2 ) as byproducts. Field-effect passivation was also inferred from the inversion (hole-rich) layer induced on the n-Si surface, a result of Fermi level alignment between two materials with dissimilar electrochemical potentials (work function delta Δφ ≥1 eV). Therefore, the holeselective and passivating functionality of these TMOs, in addition to their ambient temperature processing, could prove an effective means to lower cost and simplify solar cell processing.

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Over the last few years, transition metal oxide layers have been proposed as selective contacts both for electrons and holes and successfully applied to silicon solar cells. However, better published results need the use of both a thin and high quality intrinsic amorphous Si layer and TCO (Transparent Conductive Oxide) films. In this work, we explore the use of vanadium suboxide (V2Ox) capped with a thin Ni layer as a hole transport layer trying to avoid both the intrinsic amorphous silicon layer and the TCO contact layer. Obtained figures of merit for Ni/V2Ox/c-Si(n) test samples are saturation current densities of 175 fA cm-2 and specific contact resistance below 115 mO cm2 on 40 nm thick V2Ox layers. Finally, the Ni/V2Ox stack is used with an interdigitated back-contacted c-Si(n) solar cell architecture fully fabricated at low temperatures. An open circuit voltage, a short circuit current and a fill factor of 656 mV, 40.7 mA cm-2 and 74.0% are achieved, respectively, leading to a power conversion efficiency of 19.7%. These results confirm the high potential of Ni/V2Ox stacks as hole-selective contacts on crystalline silicon photovoltaics.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version