n-Type microcrystalline silicon oxide layer and its application to high-performance back reflectors in thin-film silicon solar cells

Highly Reflective Dielectric Back Reflector for Improved Efficiency of Tandem Thin-Film Solar Cells

“…However, the main focus of this study is trying to demonstrate the experimental proof of the concept of better performing diffuse dielectric reflector than the conventional metal reflector on a promising device configuration. On top of that the optical performance of the reference back reflector is comparable to the best known back reflector [33,34]. The result of higher efficiency of SG coated sample confirms our assumption.…”

Light management of a-SiOx:H thin film solar cells with hydrogen-reduced p+ buffer at TiO2/p-layer interface

“…Our first approach to reinforce light absorption was to maximize reflection at the back interface (i.e., n-layer/back metal). Recently, n-type SiO x :H (n-SiO x :H) films were proposed to replace the n-a-Si:H (or n-nc-Si:H)/AZO structure because the refractive index (n) of the n-SiO x :H films could be decreased close to that of ZnO (n ¼ 1.9-2.0 at 550 nm) by adding CO 2 gas with SiH 4 during plasma deposition [1,7,22,23]. However, the n-SiO x :H films fabricated by the addition of oxygen risked having an amorphous phase and suffered from sacrificing activation energy and inferior electrical conductivity (10 À 7 -10 À 9 S/cm).…”

Remarkable progress in thin-film silicon solar cells using high-efficiency triple-junction technology

“…A twophase mixture comprised of black precipitates (μc-Si:H) and a gray matrix (a-SiO x :H) can be observed clearly. This identification of a two-phase mixture is identical to our previous analysis by Raman spectroscopy [24]. The composition of this layer was analyzed by AES.…”

“…The thickness of cells was maintained at 1.6 μm, and cells were prepared in the p-i-n configuration by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The details of the PECVD deposition are similar to those reported previously [23,24]. To compare effectively the optical properties of various microcrystalline-based thin-films, the optical bandgap of E 03 (the energy level at which the absorption coefficient reaches a value of 10 3 cm −1 ) was selected to minimize a measurement error.…”