Double stack antireflection coatings have significant advantages over single-layer antireflection coatings due to their broad-range coverage of the solar spectrum. A solar cell with 60-nm/20-nm SiNX:H double stack coatings has 17.8% efficiency, while that with a 80-nm SiNX:H single coating has 17.2% efficiency. The improvement of the efficiency is due to the effect of better passivation and better antireflection of the double stack antireflection coating. It is important that SiNX:H films have strong resistance against stress factors since they are used as antireflective coating for solar cells. However, the tolerance of SiNX:H films to external stresses has never been studied. In this paper, the stability of SiNX:H films prepared by a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system is studied. The stability tests are conducted using various forms of stress, such as prolonged thermal cycle, humidity, and UV exposure. The heat and damp test was conducted for 100 h, maintaining humidity at 85% and applying thermal cycles of rapidly changing temperatures from -20°C to 85°C over 5 h. UV exposure was conducted for 50 h using a 180-W UV lamp. This confirmed that the double stack antireflection coating is stable against external stress.
Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) [AZO] is a good candidate to be used as a transparent conducting oxide [TCO]. For solar cells having a hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide [a-SiC:H] or hydrogenated amorphous silicon [a-Si:H] window layer, the use of the AZO as TCO results in a deterioration of fill factor [FF], so fluorine-doped tin oxide (Sn02:F) [FTO] is usually preferred as a TCO. In this study, interface engineering is carried out at the AZO and p-type a-SiC:H interface to obtain a better solar cell performance without loss in the FF. The abrupt potential barrier at the interface of AZO and p-type a-SiC:H is made gradual by inserting a buffer layer. A few-nanometer-thick nanocrystalline silicon buffer layer between the AZO and a-SiC:H enhances the FF from 67% to 73% and the efficiency from 7.30% to 8.18%. Further improvements in the solar cell performance are expected through optimization of cell structures and doping levels.
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