Alternative designs for nanocrystalline silicon solar cells

Alternative designs for nanocrystalline silicon solar cells

“…We have seen previously in literature that higher growth temperatures produce larger grained material [84]. This can be attributed to an increased diffusion co-efficient for the growth radicals.…”

“…Thus, in Figure 2.28 beyond the region where SiH 3 production saturates, atomic hydrogen flux continually increases and the threshold value of atomic hydrogen flux coverage for a monolayer is reached and microcrystalline growth begins. The influence of temperature has also been intensively studied though there very few reports on successfully fabricated high temperature devices [84]. A lot of research is also going on to understand low temperature growth kinetics.…”

Photonic and plasmonic structures for enhancing efficiency of thin film silicon solar cells

“…The next step was the fabrication of nc-Si:H on the nano imprinted Kapton substrates which can handle higher temperatures. Here we have used a superlattice design [64,242] to deposit nc-Si:H, with alternating layers of nc-Si:H/a-Si:H allowing independent control of crystallinity [243,244]. The solar cell with a thin ~816 nm nc-Si:H/a-Si:H absorber layer , having a 12 period structure.…”

“…The superlattice was formed by alternately cycling the RF power for 180 s at high power (30W) for nc-Si and 90 s at low power (3W) for a-Si:H respectively. Stopping the nc-Si:H growth by reducing the RF power prevents the nano-crystallites from growing and coalescing, and prevents the large angle grain boundaries that are detrimental for electronic transport [242]. Growth of the a-Si:H layer generates a new seed layer on which the next layer of nc-Si:H nucleates.…”

Influence of Oxygen on Electronic properties of Nanocrystalline Silicon

“…Dalal [19]. The main intention for all these material growth strategies is to make sure that the grain boundaries do not collide with each other and are carefully passivated by both a-Si and hydrogen to achieve lowest possible recombinations.…”