Effect of hydrogen passivation on optical properties of a-Si/SiN<inf>X</inf> multilayered films with Si-QDs and without Si-QDs

Abstract

The objective is to develop better understanding of the optical behavior of a-Si/SiNX multilayer with silicon quantum dots (Si-QDs) which can be used as light absorber material for Si-QD based solar cells. In this work, reflectance of a-Si, SiNX/a-Si, a-Si/SiNX and SiNX/a-Si/SiNX structured films with Si-QDs and without Si-QDs were examined. Hydrogen passivation (Hpassivation) of a film with Si-QDs or without Si-QDs showed negligible effect on the optical property of the film. The films with Si-QDs before and after H-passivation showed low reflectance of light in the wavelength range of 200-600 nm compared to the films without Si-QDs. The enhancement in the absorption of light in the films is attributed to the Si-QDs and the quantum confinement effect (QCE).Index Terms-amorphous silicon, quantum dot, multilayer, reflectance, H-passivation, quantum confinement effect, hot-wire CVD.978-1-4799-4398-2/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE