Effects of Work Function and Electron Affinity on the Performance of Carrier-Selective Contacts in Silicon Solar Cells Using ZnSn<sub>$_\text{} x $</sub> Ge<sub>$_\text{} 1-x $</sub>N$_\text{2}$ as a Case Study

Fébba, Davi; Paratte, Vincent; Antognini, Luca; Dréon, Julie; Hurni, Julien; Thomet, Jonathan; Rubinger, R. M.; Bortoni, Edson C.; Ballif, Christophe; Boccard, Mathieu

doi:10.1109/jphotov.2021.3109585

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…For an efficient selective contact, excellent band alignment together with an appropriate work function appear indeed to be two necessary requirements. 68,69 Adding to these two properties a wide bandgap, only highly p-or n-type doped materials qualify. This is likely to require extrinsic doping in view of the natural tendency of the Fermi level to stabilize around mid-gap of silicon in most semiconductor materials.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The latter being achieved with doping, a (relatively) high density of free charges makes it resilient to the influence of the electrode or to depletion from the silicon wafer, enabling a combination with numerous electrodes including transparent ones. For an efficient selective contact, excellent band alignment together with an appropriate work function appear indeed to be two necessary requirements 68,69 . Adding to these two properties a wide bandgap, only highly p‐ or n‐type doped materials qualify.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…valence-band alignment and p-type doping) are simultaneously required, drastically reducing the suitable materials. 68,69 Several other strategies have been suggested…”

Section: Carrier Selectivity With Metal-compound Selective Contactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Besides, approximate conduction‐band alignment and sufficient effective n‐type doping (resp. valence‐band alignment and p‐type doping) are simultaneously required, drastically reducing the suitable materials 68,69 . Several other strategies have been suggested to achieve selectivity at the contact including the asymmetric mobility contact, 67 or the introduction of carrier selective defects into a passivating film 70 .…”

Section: General Considerations For Metal‐compound Selective Contactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Carrier‐selective contacts using metal compounds for crystalline silicon solar cells

Michel

Dréon

Boccard

et al. 2022

Progress in Photovoltaics

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Solar cells rely on the efficient generation of electrons and holes and the subsequent collection of these photoexcited charge carriers at spatially separated electrodes.High wafer quality is now commonplace for crystalline silicon (c-Si) based solar cells, meaning that the cell's efficiency potential is largely dictated by the effectiveness of its carrier-selective contacts. The majority of contacts currently employed in industrial production are based on highly doped-silicon, which can introduce negative side-effects including Auger recombination or parasitic absorption depending on whether the dopants are diffused into the absorber or whether they are incorporated into silicon layers deposited outside the absorber. Given the terawatt scale of deployment of c-Si solar cells, the search for alternative contacting schemes that can offer potential benefits in terms of performance, cost, ease of processing or stability is highly relevant. One such category of contacting schemes, with the potential to avoid the above mentioned issues, is that which employs metal compounds as the 'carrierselective' layer. The last 7 years has seen a surge in interest on this topic and a few promising families of materials have emerged, most prominently the alkali/alkalineearth metal compounds and the transition-metal oxides. The number of successful selective-contact demonstrations of materials within these families is fast increasing with the best solar cell demonstrations now exceeding 23%. However, in addition to improving their efficiency performance, several challenges remain if such contacts are to be considered for industrial adoption. These are mainly associated with poor stability, lack of compatibility with transparent electrodes and inability to be deposited using standard industrial techniques. This review covers the historical developments, current status and future prospects of metal-compound based selective contacts in the context of c-Si photovoltaics.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…valence-band alignment and p-type doping) are simultaneously required, drastically reducing the suitable materials. 68,69 Several other strategies have been suggested…”

Section: Carrier Selectivity With Metal-compound Selective Contactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: General Considerations For Metal‐compound Selective Contactsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Carrier‐selective contacts using metal compounds for crystalline silicon solar cells

Michel

Dréon

Boccard

et al. 2022

Progress in Photovoltaics

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Uncertainty evaluation of Monte Carlo simulated line scan profiles of a critical dimension scanning electron microscope (CD-SEM)

Ding

Mao

Zou

et al. 2023

Journal of Applied Physics

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In recent years, precision and accuracy for a more precise critical dimension (CD) control have been required in CD measurement technology. CD distortion between the measurement by a critical dimension scanning electron microscope (CD-SEM) and a reference tool is the most important factor for a more accurate CD measurement. CD bias varies by a CD-SEM and a pattern condition. Therefore, it is urgently needed to identify, characterize, and quantify those parameters that may or may not affect the CD measurement by a CD-SEM. The sensitivity of the Monte Carlo simulated CD-SEM images with multiple physical modeling components has been studied previously. In this study, we demonstrate that the work function and elastic scattering potential models have a significant impact on secondary electron emission intensity, but their influence on the shape of the linescan profile is small, and other factors like the optical energy loss function and dielectric function models have even smaller effects. We have evaluated the uncertainty in the linescan profiles of Si line structures with different sidewall angles due to several different physical factors. It is found that when the CD is evaluated by a peak/valley method, the uncertainty of the CD is negligible. Therefore, it is concluded that the CD value and its related uncertainty are not critically related to the physical factors of the present Monte Carlo simulation model but rely dominantly on the line structure and electron beam parameters.

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Autonomous sputter synthesis of thin film nitrides with composition controlled by Bayesian optimization of optical plasma emission

et al. 2023

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Autonomous experimentation has emerged as an efficient approach to accelerate the pace of material discovery. Although instruments for autonomous synthesis have become popular in molecular and polymer science, solution processing of hybrid materials, and nanoparticles, examples of autonomous tools for physical vapor deposition are scarce yet important for the semiconductor industry. Here, we report the design and implementation of an autonomous workflow for sputter deposition of thin films with controlled composition, leveraging a highly automated sputtering reactor custom-controlled by Python, optical emission spectroscopy (OES), and a Bayesian optimization algorithm. We modeled film composition, measured by x-ray fluorescence, as a linear function of plasma emission lines monitored during co-sputtering from elemental Zn and Ti targets in an N2 and Ar atmosphere. A Bayesian control algorithm, informed by OES, navigates the space of sputtering power to fabricate films with user-defined compositions by minimizing the absolute error between desired and measured optical emission signals. We validated our approach by autonomously fabricating ZnxTi1−xNy films that deviate from the targeted cation composition by a relative ±3.5%, even for 15 nm thin films, demonstrating that the proposed approach can reliably synthesize thin films with a specific composition and minimal human interference. Moreover, the proposed method can be extended to more difficult synthesis experiments where plasma intensity lines depend non-linearly on pressure, or the elemental sticking coefficients strongly depend on the substrate temperature.

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Effects of Work Function and Electron Affinity on the Performance of Carrier-Selective Contacts in Silicon Solar Cells Using ZnSn_{$_\text{} x $} Ge_{$_\text{} 1-x $}N$_\text{2}$ as a Case Study

Cited by 5 publications

References 26 publications

Carrier‐selective contacts using metal compounds for crystalline silicon solar cells

Carrier‐selective contacts using metal compounds for crystalline silicon solar cells

Uncertainty evaluation of Monte Carlo simulated line scan profiles of a critical dimension scanning electron microscope (CD-SEM)

Autonomous sputter synthesis of thin film nitrides with composition controlled by Bayesian optimization of optical plasma emission

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Effects of Work Function and Electron Affinity on the Performance of Carrier-Selective Contacts in Silicon Solar Cells Using ZnSn$_\text{} x $ Ge$_\text{} 1-x $N$_\text{2}$ as a Case Study

Cited by 5 publications

References 26 publications

Carrier‐selective contacts using metal compounds for crystalline silicon solar cells

Carrier‐selective contacts using metal compounds for crystalline silicon solar cells

Uncertainty evaluation of Monte Carlo simulated line scan profiles of a critical dimension scanning electron microscope (CD-SEM)

Autonomous sputter synthesis of thin film nitrides with composition controlled by Bayesian optimization of optical plasma emission

Contact Info

Product

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Effects of Work Function and Electron Affinity on the Performance of Carrier-Selective Contacts in Silicon Solar Cells Using ZnSn_{$_\text{} x $} Ge_{$_\text{} 1-x $}N$_\text{2}$ as a Case Study