VHF-PECVD法制备氢化硅薄膜及单结电池

利用VHF-PECVD分解硅烷和氢气的混合气体来制备本征微晶硅薄膜.运用拉曼散射和X射线衍射研究了不同硅烷浓度对薄膜的影响.随着硅烷浓度的增加,沉积速率和光敏性增加而晶化率下降.将优化的本征材料应用到pin电池中,得到本征层厚度约为1μm的微晶电池,效率达5.87;.     

柔性衬底微晶硅太阳电池量子效率的研究

通过对微晶硅太阳电池量子效率的测量,结合微区拉曼光谱和电学特性测试,讨论了本征层的硅烷浓度和等离子体辉光功率对太阳电池量子效率的影响.发现本征层硅烷浓度增加时,电池的长波响应变差,材料结构由微晶相演变成非晶相;等离子体辉光功率的增加造成了电池短波响应的变化.同时发现测量微晶硅太阳电池时使用掩膜板所得短路电流密度与量子效率积分获得的短路电流密度相差不大.将优化后的沉积参数应用于不锈钢柔性衬底的非晶硅/微晶硅叠层太阳电池,获得了9.28;(AM0,1353 W/m2)和11.26;(AM1.5,1000 W/m2)的光电转换效率.     

采用高压RF-PECVD法制备高电导、高晶化率的p型微晶硅材料

本文报道了采用高压射频等离子体增强化学气相沉积(RF-PECVD)方法制备高电导、高晶化率的p型微晶硅材料的结果.重点研究了反应压力和辉光功率对p型微晶硅材料结构和电学特性的影响.通过沉积参数的优化,在很薄的厚度(33nm)时,材料的暗电导率依然达到1.81S/cm,激活能达25meV,晶化率为57;.文中还对高压RF-PECVD能够制备p型微晶硅材料的生长机理和高电导机理进行了分析.     

从P-a-SiC:H到P-μc-Si:H过程中材料特性的变化

采用RF-PECVD方法,在P-a-SiC:H薄膜沉积技术基础上,通过逐步减小碳、硼的掺杂浓度,增大氢稀释率,使材料从非晶态向微晶态转变,在获得本征微晶材料之后,再逐步增大硼掺杂浓度,得到P型微晶硅薄膜材料(暗电导率为5.22×10-3S/cm,光学带隙大于2.0eV).在这个过程中可以明显观察到碳、硼抑制材料晶化的作用.     

P／I界面处理对a-Si：H柔性太阳能电池性能的影响

采用等离子体辅助化学汽相沉积(PECVD)技术制备本征非晶硅薄膜,对p/i界面进行处理.在此基础上,制备P型微晶硅(μc-Si:H)薄膜与柔性太阳能电池.对P型硅薄膜及太阳能电池的性能进行研究.结果表明:对p/i界面采用H等离子体处理,再引入一定厚度的成核层,可以成功得到高电导率的P型微晶硅窗口层,提高柔性太阳能电池的光伏特性.其中的成核层,不仅促进微晶相P层的生长,还可以起到界面缓冲层的作用.     

VHF-PECVD制备不同氢稀释条件下硅薄膜特性分析

本文集中报导了不同硅烷浓度条件下,制备的系列硅薄膜电学特性和结构特性的分析研究。结果表明：随着硅烷浓度的逐渐减小,材料逐渐地由非晶向微晶转变。傅立叶变换红外吸收(FFIR)的测试结果表明：微晶硅材料存在着自然的不稳定性,表现为氧含量随着时间的推移而增多。而且,微结构因子(IR)的结果给出：对于适用于电池有源层的微晶硅材料来说,其IR不能太大,也不能太小,本实验中相对好的微晶硅材料其IR为31％。     

气压对VHF-PECVD制备的μc-Si:H 薄膜特性影响的研究

本文主要研究了用VHF-PECVD方法制备的不同工作气压的微晶硅薄膜样品.结果表明:沉积速率随反应气压的增大而逐渐增大;光敏性(光电导/暗电导)和激活能测试结果给出了相同的变化规律;傅立叶红外测试、X射线衍射和室温微区喇曼谱的结果都表明了样品的晶化特性;通过工艺的具体优化得出了器件级的微晶硅材料.     

VHF-PECVD制备微晶硅薄膜的微结构研究

用甚高频等离子体化学气相沉积(VHF-PECVD)法在玻璃衬底上低温制备了不同沉积时间微晶硅薄膜.用拉曼散射光谱仪、X射线衍射(XRD)、原子力显微镜(AFM)等表征手段对薄膜的微观结构进行了研究.研究结果表明:随着沉积时间的延长,薄膜呈岛状生长,薄膜晶粒度在微晶核形成后迅速升高并逐渐饱和;其微观结构经历了"非晶相→非晶/微晶混合相→微晶相"的演变过程.本实验制备的微薄膜仍以(111)为优化取向.     

用于HIT太阳能电池的非晶硅薄膜制备与性能研究

采用射频等离子体增强化学气相沉积技术(RF-PECVD),在不同硅烷浓度下制备本征非晶硅薄膜,研究薄膜材料的微结构和光电性能.研究表明,在硅烷浓度为5;时,制备的薄膜材料处于非晶/微晶相过渡区域,具有宽光学带隙、低吸收系数、较高电导率和较好的致密性.作为钝化层应用到HIT太阳电池中,具有良好的钝化效果,在n型单晶硅衬底上制备出了效率为13.92;的太阳电池.     

单晶硅太阳电池黑角问题的研究

用电致发光(EL)技术检测P型常规单晶硅太阳电池,发现角部发黑问题.研究其与电池制造工艺或单晶硅材料的相关性,测试正常和黑角电池片的电性能参数发现黑角电池光电转换效率低于19.90;.经腐蚀剥离电池分析基底单晶硅材料,发现黑角处材料的少子寿命比中心位置处低约50μs以上.用Schimmel A择优腐蚀液剥离黑角电池,在黑角位置的硅材料明显出现位错缺陷,且缺陷数量高于中心区域.经多项实验检测分析,初步得出EL测试出现黑角边问题的单晶硅电池与基底硅材料的原生缺陷有关.     

Microcrystalline silicon oxide (μc-SiOx:H) alloys: A versatile material for application in thin film silicon single and tandem junction solar cells

We report on the development and application of n-type hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon oxide (μc-SiO_x:H) alloys in single and tandem junction thin film silicon solar cells. Single junction microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) solar cells are prepared in n-i-p deposition sequence where n-type μc-SiO_x:H films serve as window layers. In tandem solar cells, μc-SiO_x:H layers are placed between amorphous (a-Si:H) and μc-Si:H component cells, serving as an intermediate reflector. The requirements for μc-SiO_x:H layer depending on its application are discussed. Our results show that the optical, electrical and structural properties of μc-SiO_x:H can be conveniently tuned over a wide range to fulfil various requirements for applications in both types of cells. Additionally, the properties of μc-SiO_x:H layers appear to be substrate dependent, which should be taken into account when layers are utilized in cells. The advantages of low refractive index and high optical band gap allow to achieve high efficiencies of 9.2% and 12.6% for single junction and tandem solar cells, respectively.     

Low concentrator hetero-junction microcrystalline silicon solar cells

Multi-junction silicon-based thin-film solar cells are attractive materials for further cost-reduction and high efficiency. Meanwhile, it is also well considered that a concentrator solar cell is another alternative approach to enhance the conversion efficiency. In concentrator solar cells, the photocurrent linearly increases with the concentration ratio of incident light. At the same time, the open-circuit voltage (V_oc) of solar cells increases logarithmically with the photocurrent. This leads to an increase in efficiency with increasing sunlight intensity.We proposed a novel hetero-junction structure microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) solar cell structure using wide-gap microcrystalline silicon oxide (μc-Si_1 ? xO_x:H) as p-layer and it has some advantages over conventional homo-junction μc-Si:H solar cells under low concentrations. It was observed that wide-gap doped layers can reduce carrier recombination rate especially in p-layer and at the p/i interface and V_oc enhancement with increasing light intensity improves as the band gap of p-layer is increased. Our best solar cell has efficiencies of 9.2% at 1 sun and 10.4% at 11.8 suns. We also investigated the degradation behavior of hetero-junction μc-Si:H solar cells. The degradation in efficiency for this type of solar cell was less than 6%. Therefore, hetero-junction μc-Si:H solar cell is the promising alternative for low-light concentration.     

AMPS-1D simulation studies of electronic transport in n+-μc-Si:H thin films

To study the electronic transport in highly n-doped microcrystalline silicon (n⁺-μc-Si:H) thin films, grain-boundary trapping model is implemented in AMPS (analysis of microelectronic and photonic structure)-1D. This approach is based on the traditional thermionic-emission model and considering the electronic transport parallel to the substrate. In spite of its simplicity, the model leads to the simulated values of activation energy, free carrier concentration, interface trap charge density and mobility which are in good agreement with the referred Hall effect measurement results for electron cyclotron resonance-chemical vapor deposited (ECR-CVD) highly n-doped μc-Si:H thin films.     

The role of ion-bulk interactions during high rate deposition of microcrystalline silicon by means of the multi-hole-cathode VHF plasma

The high rate deposition of microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) by means of the novel multi-hole-cathode very high frequency (MHC-VHF) plasma technique has been studied in the high-pressure depletion region (9.3 Torr). A distinct relationship between vacancy incorporation, the crystalline volume fraction and a qualitative measurement of the energy of the ions bombarding the substrate has been found. The observed relation is explained with the help of an ion-phase-diagram: we claim that the most energetic ions, containing at least one silicon atom, are responsible for the local amorphization of the μc-Si:H films via the ion induced Si bulk displacement mechanism.     

Effect of hot-wire passivation on the properties of hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon films to reduce post-deposition oxidation

Hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) films have a large number of grain boundaries that oxidize after deposition, leading to deterioration of device performance. In this study, post-treatment of μc-Si:H thin films was carried out with methane-related radicals generated by a hot wire. The effect of the hot-wire passivation on the properties of the μc-Si:H thin films was investigated using Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) transmission spectroscopy. Through post-treatment, hydrogen on the silicon-crystallite surface was substituted with hydrocarbon. Further, an increase in filament temperature (T_ft) was found to enhance passivation. For films treated at T_ft above 1700 °C, post-oxidation and nitridation hardly occurred, whereas films treated at T_ft below 1400 °C were oxidized and nitrided even after post-treatment.     

Effect of thermal annealing and hydrogen-plasma treatment in boron-doped microcrystalline silicon

We have investigated the effects of temperature (during film growth and post-deposition thermal annealing) and H₂-plasma treatment on the electronic and structural properties of p-type microcrystalline silicon films (p-μc-Si:H) for solar cell applications. The highest dark conductivity is obtained in the thermally annealed p-μc-Si:H prepared at low substrate temperature of 50 °C. This dark conductivity is decreased by two orders of magnitude when the film is exposed to H₂-plasma, being completely restored after thermal annealing. Namely, reversible dual-conductivity cycle is observed between thermally annealed state and H₂-plasma-treated state in p-μc-Si:H. The dual-conductivity cycle is accompanied with the reversible change in the infrared-absorption spectrum at around 1845 cm^? 1 assigned as SiHB complex in p-μc-Si:H network structure. Taking into account of the reversible structural change by H₂-plasma-exposure and thermal-annealing cycles, necessary process-procedure condition has been proposed for obtaining high photovoltaic performance in thin-film-Si solar cells with high quality p-μc-Si:H.     

Toward the fast deposition of highly crystallized microcrystalline silicon films with low defect density for Si thin-film solar cells

In this study, employing a high-density, low-temperature SiH₄–H₂ mixture microwave plasma, we investigate the influence of source gas supply configuration on deposition rate and structural properties of microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si) films, and demonstrate the plasma parameters for fast deposition of highly crystallized μc-Si films with low defect density. A fast deposition rate of 65 Å/s has been achieved for a SiH₄ concentration of 67% diluted in H₂ with a high Raman crystallinity of X_c > 65% and a low defect density of (1–2) × 10¹⁶ cm⁻³ by adjusting source gas supply configuration and plasma conditions. A sufficient supply of deposition precursors, such as SiH₃, as well as atomic hydrogen H on film growing surface is effective for the high-rate synthesis of highly crystallized μc-Si films, for the reduction in defect density, and for the improvement in film homogeneity and compactability. A preliminary result of p–i–n structure μc-Si thin-film solar cells using the resulting μc-Si films as an intrinsic absorption layer is presented.     

Fractional composition of large crystallite grains: A unique microstructural parameter to explain conduction behavior in single phase undoped microcrystalline silicon

We have studied the dark conductivity of a broad microstructural range of plasma deposited single phase undoped microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) films in a wide temperature range (15–450 K) to identify the possible transport mechanisms and the interrelationship between film microstructure and electrical transport behavior. Different conduction behaviors seen in films with different microstructures are explained in the context of underlying transport mechanisms and microstructural features, for above and below room temperature measurements. Our microstructural studies have shown that different ranges of the percentage volume fraction of the constituent large crystallite grains (F_cl) of the μc-Si:H films correspond to characteristically different and specific microstructures, irrespective of deposition conditions and thicknesses. Our electrical transport studies demonstrate that each type of μc-Si:H material having a different range of F_cl shows different electrical transport behaviors.     

Metastability effects in hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon thin films investigated by the dual beam photoconductivity method

Metastability effects in microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) thin films have been investigated using dark conductivity, σ_D, photoconductivity, σ_ph, and sub-bandgap absorption methods. Nitrogen and inert gasses can cause reversible aging effect in conductivities but not in the sub-bandgap absorption. However, DI water and O₂ gas treatment result in both reversible and nonreversible effects in conductivities as well as in the sub-bandgap absorption. Only oxygen affected the dark conductivity reversibly in amorphous silicon, a-Si:H, films, other results were unaffected from the aging and annealing processes applied.     

A simple quality factor for characterization of thin silicon films

Four series of intrinsic thin Si films were prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition at standard and high growth rate conditions. We suggest a simple ‘μc-Si:H layer quality factor’ based on the ratio of subgap optical absorption coefficient values: α(1.4 eV)/α(1 eV). This ratio minimizes the light scattering effects for rough films and can serve as a reliable detection of the amorphous/microcrystalline structure transition and also as a figure of merit for the microcrystalline layer. The quality factor is evaluated for series of our samples with well known structure and also compared with samples from other laboratories with different deposition and measurement techniques.