It is now generally recognized that the excitation frequency is an important parameter in radio-frequency (rf) plasma-assisted deposition. Very-high-frequency (VHF) silane plasmas (50–100 MHz) have been shown to produce high quality amorphous silicon films up to 20 Å/s [H. Curtins, N. Wyrsch, M. Favre, and A. V. Shah, Plasma Chem. Plasma Processing 7, 267 (1987)], and therefore the aim of this work is to compare the VHF range with the 13.56 MHz industrial frequency in the same reactor. The principal diagnostics used are electrical measurements and a charge coupled device camera for spatially resolved plasma-induced emission with Abel inversion of the plasma image. We present a comparative study of key discharge parameters such as deposition rates, plasma uniformity, ion impact energy, power transfer efficiency, and powder formation for the rf range 13–70 MHz.

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Phosphorus-doped microcrystalline silicon with high-crystalline volume fraction was prepared by very highfrequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The material is studied by electron spin resonance and transport measurements as a function of doping and temperature. In all samples a resonance at gϭ1.998 is found with spin densities very similar to the phosphorus dopant density and also the carrier density at high doping levels. This resonance is related to doping-induced excess electrons. Its spin density is largely temperature independent, and the corresponding electrons occupy dopant or conduction band tail states at low temperatures, while they are excited into the conduction band at high T. This gradual transition is accompanied by changes in linewidth, g value and spin-lattice relaxation time. Hyperfine interaction with P nuclei is only observed for intermediate doping levels and has very small intensity. From the value of the hyperfine splitting, the effective Bohr radius of the impurity wave function is estimated to 12 Å. Transport at low temperatures (TϽ20 K) proceeds via hopping between donor states and/or conduction-band tail states. A thermal activation energy of 3.5 meV and similar localization lengths as from the hyperfine data are found for this process. At temperatures above 20 K electronic transport is governed by a wide distribution of activation energies.

A highly transparent passivating contact (TPC) as front contact for crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells could in principle combine high conductivity, excellent surface passivation and high optical transparency. However, the simultaneous optimization of these features remains challenging. Here, we present a TPC consisting of a silicon-oxide tunnel layer followed by two layers of hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon carbide (nc-SiC:H(n)) deposited at different temperatures and a sputtered indium tin oxide (ITO) layer (c-Si(n)/SiO2/nc-SiC:H(n)/ITO). While the wide band gap of nc-SiC:H(n) ensures high optical transparency, the double layer design enables good passivation and high conductivity translating into an improved short-circuit current density (40.87 mA cm−2), fill factor (80.9%) and efficiency of 23.99 ± 0.29% (certified). Additionally, this contact avoids the need for additional hydrogenation or high-temperature postdeposition annealing steps. We investigate the passivation mechanism and working principle of the TPC and provide a loss analysis based on numerical simulations outlining pathways towards conversion efficiencies of 26%.

The influence of the plasma excitation frequency on the growth conditions and the material properties of microcrystalline silicon prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition at low deposition temperature is investigated. It is found that an increase of the plasma excitation frequency leads to a simultaneous increase of the growth rate, the grain size, and the Hall mobility of microcrystalline silicon. This is attributed to an effective selective etching of disordered material creating more space to develop crystalline grains, while also more species for faster growth of the crystallites are available.

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Thin film microcrystalline silicon solar cells were prepared with intrinsic absorber layers by Hot Wire CVD at various silane concentrations and substrate temperatures. Independently from the substrate temperature, a maximum efficiency is observed close to the transition to amorphous growth, i.e. the best cells already show considerable amorphous volume fractions. A detailed analysis of the thickness dependence of the solar cell parameters in the dark and under illumination indicate a high electronic quality of the i-layer material. Solar cells with very high open circuit voltages Voc up to 600mV in combination with fill factors above 70% and high short circuit current densities jsc of 22mA/cm2 were obtained, yielding efficiencies above 9%. The highest efficiency of 9.4% was achieved in solar cells of 1.4μm and 1.8μm thickness. These cells with high Voc have considerable amorphous volume fractions in the i-layer, leading to a reduced absorption in the infrared wavelength region.

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