High-efficiency and highly stable a-Si:H solar cells deposited at high rate (8 Å/s) with disilane grading process

Hou, Guofu; Fan, Qihua; Liao, Xianbo; Chen, Changyong; Xiang, Xianbi; Deng, Xunming

doi:doi:10.1116/1.3630052

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Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A / Volume 29 / Issue 6 / Photovoltaics and Energy

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J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 29, 061201 (2011); http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.3630052 (4 pages)

High-efficiency and highly stable a-Si:H solar cells deposited at high rate (8 Å/s) with disilane grading process

Guofu Hou¹, Qihua Fan¹, Xianbo Liao¹, Changyong Chen¹, Xianbi Xiang¹, and Xunming Deng²

¹Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606
²Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio 43606 and Xunlight Corporation, 3105 Nebraska Street, Toledo, Ohio 43606

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(Published online 23 September 2011)

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This paper presents our recent results on the high-rate deposition of high-efficiency and highly stable hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells with all layers deposited by 13.56 MHz radio frequency glow discharge. Using a linear disilane (Si₂H₆) grading process, high initial active-area efficiency of 11.42% has been obtained for the a-Si:H top cells with an effective i-layer deposition rate of 8 Å/s. It is also found that the light-soaking stability of the a-Si:H top cells is much improved by the Si₂H₆ grading process with the best a-Si:H top cell exhibiting only 11.2% light-induced degradation after 1000 h of light-soaking. Integrating the high-rate deposited a-Si:H top cell in an amorphous silicon/amorphous silicon germanium (a-Si:H/a-SiGe:H) tandem cell, an initial active-area efficiency of 12.57% is achieved. After light soaking for 1008 h, the stable efficiency is still as high as 11.02%, corresponding to only a 12.31% degradation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the best performance for a-Si:H based solar cells at such a high deposition rate by 13.56 MHz RF-PECVD. Possible mechanisms responsible for the superior stability of the a-Si:H solar cells deposited by the Si₂H₆ grading process are discussed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work is supported by the DOE research project ‘High-rate fabrication of a-Si-based thin film solar cells using large area VHF-PECVD processes,’ Award No. DE-FG36-08GO18073.

Article Outline

INTRODUCTION
EXPERIMENT
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
1. Influence of Si ₂ H ₆ flow rate on the initial performance and stability of the a-Si:H top cell
2. Influence of Si ₂ H ₆ grading on the initial performance and stability of the a-Si:H top cell
3. High-efficiency and highly stable a-SiGe:H/a-Si:H tandem solar cell
Discussion
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

amorphous semiconductors, elemental semiconductors, hydrogen, plasma CVD, semiconductor growth, silicon, solar cells

PACS

88.40.jj

Silicon solar cells
88.40.hj

Efficiency and performance of solar cells

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History

Received 11 April 2011
Accepted 5 August 2011
Published online 23 September 2011

Digital Object Identifier

http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.3630052

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0734-2101 (print)

1520-8559 (online)

Publisher

American Vacuum Society

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