Observation by conductive-probe atomic force microscopy of strongly inverted surface layers at the hydrogenated amorphous silicon/crystalline silicon heterojunctions

Abstract

Articles you may be interested inDirect determination of the band offset in atomic layer deposited ZnO/hydrogenated amorphous silicon heterojunctions from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy valence band spectra

Interface properties of amorphous-crystalline silicon heterojunctions prepared using DC saddle-field PECVD

“…We have recently shown that devices made using the DC saddle field do yield open circuit voltages approaching 700 mV [14]. It also confirms the value of valence band offset close to 0.4 eV deduced from the PECVD samples [12]. …”

“…The surface conductances for the films grown on crystalline silicon substrates correspond to increasing i-layer thickness (0, 4, and 10 min of deposition at a nominal deposition rate of 1 nm/min). As expected from studies on RF PECVD a-Si:H films [10][11][12], the samples on crystalline silicon have a much higher conductance and a weaker temperature dependence, i.e. a lower activation energy (see Table 2), which suggests the presence of a strong inverted layer at the interface.…”

Transparent Electrodes in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells: Influence on Contact Passivation

“…For the electron collector, the a-Si:H(n) layer introduces a downward band bending inside the wafer (electron accumulation, hole depletion). Conversely, for the hole collector, the presence of the a-Si:H(p) layer results in a strong upwards band bending inside the wafer that can result in surface inversion (hole accumulation, electron depletion) [25]. In our experiment, different asymptotic implied-FF values (∼86% and ∼84% for increasingly thick a-Si:H(n) and a-Si:H(p) films, respectively) are attributed to these two opposite situations.…”

Analysis of lateral transport through the inversion layer in amorphous silicon/crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells

“…14,15 Until now, the inversion layer has been considered only as a tool to characterize the band offsets at the a-Si:H/c-Si interface 16,17 and its influence on lateral transport in operating devices has not yet been analyzed. Lateral transport through an inversion layer is successfully leveraged in modulationdoped field-effect transistors 18 and in metal-insulatorconductor inversion layer solar cells.…”