Numerical analysis of dopant‐free asymmetric silicon heterostructure solar cell with SiO ₂ as passivation layer

Abstract

Conventional silicon heterojunction solar cells employ defects-prone a-Si:H layers for junction formation and passivation purposes. Substituting these layers with hole-selective MoO x and electron-selective TiO x can reduce parasitic absorption and energy band offsets issues associated with doped silicon films. In this work, dopant-free asymmetric heterostructure Si solar cells are studied with and without SiO 2 passivation layer, and their performance has been compared. The inclusion of ultrathin SiO 2 insulator as a passivation layer promotes significant band bending that induces interface inversion of crystalline silicon as well as maintains the electric field required to tunnel charge carriers. The energy band diagram studies and variation of oxide thickness show that the IV characteristics of the solar cell critically depend on the insulator thickness; as the carriers tunnelling through the insulator becomes negligible at larger thicknesses. The simulated structure with MoO x as front holeselective contact and without any passivation exhibited conversion efficiency of 15.73%, which improved to 18.69% by incorporating passivated a-Si:H. However, by employing rear SiO 2 /TiO x stack with the front SiO 2 /MoO x , the device performance enhanced to open-circuit voltage of 785 mV, short-circuit current density of 41 mA/cm 2 , fill factor of 77%, and simulated conversion efficiency of 24.83%, which is~10% enhancement in the performance as compared to reference device employing traditional a-Si:H with dopant-free films. Novelty Statement For the first time, a dopant-free asymmetric silicon heterostructure solar cell (DASH) employing silicon oxide (SiO 2) as a passivation layer has been physically modelled using Silvaco TCAD. The dopant-free MoO x and TiO x as holeand electron-selective contacts have been incorporated. An ultrathin SiO 2 promotes band bending that induces interface inversion of absorber as well as facilitating carrier tunnelling. An efficiency of 24.83% has been numerically attained which is the best performance among DASH structures designed with oxide passivation. The 2-D cross-section view of the proposed device employing dopant-free layers and oxide passivated film is illustrated in Figure 1 for which we have applied memory intensive numerical method based on the computation of Poisson, charge transport and continuity equations in the Silvaco ATLAS

AFORS-HET-based numerical exploration of tunnel oxide passivated contact solar cells incorporating n- and p-type silicon substrates

“…This innovative idea avoids the somewhat complex process for localized contacts and provides the advantage of full-area contact. 2 It is compatible with the current manufacturing line and high-temperature process conditions. In solar cells, a thin oxide layer is employed to offer complete-area passivation of greater quality, as well as an electron tunnelling function on the rear surface of the silicon wafer.…”

The Development of Carbon/Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells through Interface Passivation

“…Currently, classic passivation (chemical passivation and field‐effect passivation) techniques have been applied for high‐efficiency Si solar cells. An alternative passivation strategy is chemical passivation (passivation materials including SiO 2 , a‐Si:H) and is based on a covalent bond formed between the Si surface atoms and atoms inside the passivation materials; [ 59 ] In contrast, field‐effect passivation (such as Al 2 O 3 , SiN x ) is linked to the use of an electric field provided by fixed charges in dielectric materials. [ 60 ] The porosity of the CNT film made the use of traditional passivation layers like a‐Si:H or SiN x difficult.…”

Tunnel Oxide Deposition Techniques and Their Parametric Influence on Nano-Scaled SiOx Layer of TOPCon Solar Cell: A Review

“…Although there is some information studying the feasible replacement and variations for the layer of tunnel oxide in TOPCon solar cells, strong investigation and improvement are extremely necessary for this area, which is deprived of negotiating the efficiency of the cell and its parametric factors. There are few new results on the conversion of the layer SiO 2 passivation to enhance the implementation on the solar cells containing particular deficiencies, polymer layer deposition, and accumulation of dopants to produce heterogeneous structures [111][112][113][114][115].…”