Surface passivation of crystalline silicon solar cells: a review

Abstract

In the 1980s, advances in the passivation of both cell surfaces led to the first crystalline silicon solar cells with conversion efficiencies above 20%. With today's industry trend towards thinner wafers and higher cell efficiency, the passivation of the front and rear surfaces is now also becoming vitally important for commercial silicon cells. This paper presents a review of the surface passivation methods used since the 1970s, both on laboratory‐type as well as industrial cells. Given the trend towards lower‐cost (but also lower‐quality) Si materials such as block‐cast multicrystalline Si, ribbon Si or thin‐film polycrystalline Si, the most promising surface passivation methods identified to date are the fabrication of a p–n junction and the subsequent passivation of the resulting silicon surface with plasma silicon nitride as this material, besides reducing surface recombination and reflection losses, additionally provides a very efficient passivation of bulk defects. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Electronic Properties of Meso-Superstructured and Planar Organometal Halide Perovskite Films: Charge Trapping, Photodoping, and Carrier Mobility

“…Another possibility is that the Al 2 O 3 and TiO 2 scaffolds actually help to passivate and even fill traps present at the perovskite surfaces. In fact, the high fixed negative charge density of such metal oxides has been exploited in Si solar cells to passivate surface states, consistent with our observations, 39,40 The two may even be acting concurrently to induce such a high doping / passivation effect.…”

Electronic Properties of Meso-Superstructured and Planar Organometal Halide Perovskite Films: Charge Trapping, Photodoping, and Carrier Mobility

“…Another possibility is that the Al 2 O 3 and TiO 2 scaffolds actually help to passivate and even fill traps present at the perovskite surfaces. In fact, the high fixed negative charge density of such metal oxides has been exploited in Si solar cells to passivate surface states, consistent with our observations, 39,40 The two may even be acting concurrently to induce such a high doping / passivation effect.…”

A synergetic application of surface plasmon and field effect to improve Si solar cell performance

“…The corresponding photovoltaic parameters are listed in table 1. It is seen that after introducing the FE layers, the photo-current and efficiency are enhanced as previously reported [15] due to both chemical and FE passivations [5][6][7][8]. As compared to the 'Ref' cell, the '+FE' one has an 18.2% short-circuit current enhancement and a 17.2% efficiency enhancement.…”

Plasma-Assisted ALD for the Conformal Deposition of SiO2: Process, Material and Electronic Properties

“…The data reveal a shift of the Si-O-Si stretching and Si-O-Si rocking modes toward lower wavenumbers for the ALD SiO 2 film. This is in agreement with the slightly nonstoichiometric nature of the films and the fact that the mass density of ALD SiO 2 is slightly lower compared to typical values for wet thermally-grown SiO 2 films (∼2.2 g/cm 3 ). The FTIR data also confirm the presence of hydrogen in the ALD SiO 2 films by the observation of SiO-H bending (∼920 cm −1 ) and SiO-H stretching (2500-3600 cm −1 ) signatures in the spectrum.…”

Electronic Properties of Meso-Superstructured and Planar Organometal Halide Perovskite Films: Charge Trapping, Photodoping, and Carrier Mobility

“…Another possibility is that the Al 2 O 3 and TiO 2 scaffolds actually help to passivate and even fill traps present at the perovskite surfaces. In fact, the high fixed negative charge density of such metal oxides has been exploited in Si solar cells to passivate surface states, consistent with our observations, 39,40 The two may even be acting concurrently to induce such a high doping / passivation effect.…”

A synergetic application of surface plasmon and field effect to improve Si solar cell performance

“…The corresponding photovoltaic parameters are listed in table 1. It is seen that after introducing the FE layers, the photo-current and efficiency are enhanced as previously reported [15] due to both chemical and FE passivations [5][6][7][8]. As compared to the 'Ref' cell, the '+FE' one has an 18.2% short-circuit current enhancement and a 17.2% efficiency enhancement.…”

Plasma-Assisted ALD for the Conformal Deposition of SiO2: Process, Material and Electronic Properties

“…The data reveal a shift of the Si-O-Si stretching and Si-O-Si rocking modes toward lower wavenumbers for the ALD SiO 2 film. This is in agreement with the slightly nonstoichiometric nature of the films and the fact that the mass density of ALD SiO 2 is slightly lower compared to typical values for wet thermally-grown SiO 2 films (∼2.2 g/cm 3 ). The FTIR data also confirm the presence of hydrogen in the ALD SiO 2 films by the observation of SiO-H bending (∼920 cm −1 ) and SiO-H stretching (2500-3600 cm −1 ) signatures in the spectrum.…”

Electronic Properties of Meso-Superstructured and Planar Organometal Halide Perovskite Films: Charge Trapping, Photodoping, and Carrier Mobility

“…Another possibility is that the Al 2 O 3 and TiO 2 scaffolds actually help to passivate and even fill traps present at the perovskite surfaces. In fact, the high fixed negative charge density of such metal oxides has been exploited in Si solar cells to passivate surface states, consistent with our observations, 39,40 The two may even be acting concurrently to induce such a high doping / passivation effect.…”

A synergetic application of surface plasmon and field effect to improve Si solar cell performance

“…The corresponding photovoltaic parameters are listed in table 1. It is seen that after introducing the FE layers, the photo-current and efficiency are enhanced as previously reported [15] due to both chemical and FE passivations [5][6][7][8]. As compared to the 'Ref' cell, the '+FE' one has an 18.2% short-circuit current enhancement and a 17.2% efficiency enhancement.…”

Plasma-Assisted ALD for the Conformal Deposition of SiO2: Process, Material and Electronic Properties

“…The data reveal a shift of the Si-O-Si stretching and Si-O-Si rocking modes toward lower wavenumbers for the ALD SiO 2 film. This is in agreement with the slightly nonstoichiometric nature of the films and the fact that the mass density of ALD SiO 2 is slightly lower compared to typical values for wet thermally-grown SiO 2 films (∼2.2 g/cm 3 ). The FTIR data also confirm the presence of hydrogen in the ALD SiO 2 films by the observation of SiO-H bending (∼920 cm −1 ) and SiO-H stretching (2500-3600 cm −1 ) signatures in the spectrum.…”