High‐Density Plasma‐Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition of Si‐Based Materials for Solar Cell Applications

Abstract

High-quality and low-cost fabrication of Si-based materials, in which many fundamental and technology problems still remain, have attracted tremendous interests due to their wide applications in solar cell area. Low-frequency inductively coupled plasma (LFICP) provides a new and competitive solution, thanks to its inherent advantages of high-density plasma, low sheath potential, and low electron temperature, etc. The plasma characteristic-dependent microstructures, optical and electronic properties of the LFICP CVD-based hydrogenated amorphous/microcrystalline silicon and silicon oxides are systematically studied. Remote-LFICP combing the high-density plasma nature of ICP and mild ion bombardment on growing surface in remote plasma allows the deposition of high-quality Si-based materials providing excellent c-Si surface passivation. The mechanism of surface passivation by LFICP CVD Si-based materials, interaction between plasma species and growing surface are analyzed in terms of the plasma properties. These results pave the way for LFICP CVD utilization in Si-based high-efficiency and low-cost solar cell fabrication.