Efficient defect passivation by hot-wire hydrogenation

Abstract

Hydrogen engineering via plasma immersion ion implantation and flash lamp annealing in silicon-based solar cell substrates J. Appl. Phys. 115, 064505 (2014); 10.1063/1.4865737 Interdigitated back contact silicon heterojunction solar cell and the effect of front surface passivation Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 063507 (2007);

Influence of annealing and Al2O3 properties on the hydrogen-induced passivation of the Si/SiO2 interface

“…The findings in this paper pertaining to the criteria for effective hydrogenation may also have implications for other technologies, for example for bulk passivation of (poly) crystalline materials and hydrogenation of transparent conductive oxides. [57][58][59] …”

Impurity Precipitation, Dissolution, Gettering and Passivation in PV Silicon: Final Technical Report, 30 January 1998--29 August 2001

“…The ability of hydrogen to passivate electrically active defects is well known (see, e.g., the review of Pearton et al [96]) and is widely used in photovoltaics to increase the minority carrier diffusion length (see, e.g., Refs. [97,98]). Passivation is usually implemented by a relatively low-temperature hydrogen plasma treatment.…”

Effect of hot-wire passivation on the properties of hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon films to reduce post-deposition oxidation

“…This leads to deterioration of device performance that include increases in dark conductivity and reductions in activation energy [2,3]. Post-treatment is a useful method to improve grain boundaries [4]. Further, as a hot wire is a good catalyst for decomposing feedstock gas [5], we investigated the effect of hot-wire passivation on the properties of lc-Si:H thin films.…”

“…Hydrogen is generally used for post-treatment [4], however, in this study post-treatment was carried out in a methane atmosphere. Methane was chosen instead of hydrogen because: (1) with lc-Si:H, light-induced degradation rarely occurs as it does with amorphous silicon [6], but an increase in hydrogen content has the possibility of bringing about light-induced degradation even for lcSi:H [7,8], (2) the Si-H bond energy is lower than that of the Si-C bond [9], (3) the size of the methyl radical is almost the same as that of the silicon atom [10], so much so that the film becomes denser, and (4) the incorporation of a small amount of carbon atoms in silicon films leads to increases in photoconductivity and photosensitivity [11].…”