Fabrication of c-Si：H（p）/c-Si（n） Heterojunction Solar Cells with Microcrystalline Emitters

The p-type microcrystalline silicon （μc-Si：H） on n-type crystalline silicon （c-Si） heterojunction solar cells is fabricated by radio-frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition （rf-PECVD）. The effect of the μc- Si：Hp-layers on the performance of the heterojunction solar cells is investigated. Optimum μc-Si：H p-layer is obtained with hydrogen dil u tion ratio of 99.65 %, rf-power of 0. 08 W/cm^2 , gas phase doping ratio of 0. 125 %, and the p-layer thickness of 15nm. We fabricate μc-Si：H（p）/c-Si（n） heterojunction solar cells without texturing and obtained an efficiency of 13.4%. The comparisons of the solar-cell performances using different surface passivation techniques are discussed.     

Indium–tin oxide films obtained by DC magnetron sputtering for improved Si heterojunction solar cell applications

The indium–tin oxide(ITO) film as the antireflection layer and front electrodes is of key importance to obtaining high efficiency Si heterojunction(HJ) solar cells. To obtain high transmittance and low resistivity ITO films by direct-current(DC) magnetron sputtering, we studied the impacts of the ITO film deposition conditions, such as the oxygen flow rate,pressure, and sputter power, on the electrical and optical properties of the ITO films. ITO films of resistivity of 4×10-4?·m and average transmittance of 89% in the wavelength range of 380–780 nm were obtained under the optimized conditions:oxygen flow rate of 0.1 sccm, pressure of 0.8 Pa, and sputtering power of 110 W. These ITO films were used to fabricate the single-side HJ solar cell without an intrinsic a-Si:H layer. However, the best HJ solar cell was fabricated with a lower sputtering power of 95 W, which had an efficiency of 11.47%, an open circuit voltage(V oc) of 0.626 V, a filling factor(FF) of 0.50, and a short circuit current density(J sc) of 36.4 m A/cm2. The decrease in the performance of the solar cell fabricated with high sputtering power of 110 W is attributed to the ion bombardment to the emitter. The V oc was improved to 0.673 V when a 5 nm thick intrinsic a-Si:H layer was inserted between the(p) a-Si:H and(n) c-Si layer. The higher V oc of 0.673 V for the single-side HJ solar cell implies the excellent c-Si surface passivation by a-Si:H.     

Influence of the total gas flow rate on high rate growth microcrystalline silicon films and solar cells

This paper reports that high-rate-deposition of microcrystalline silicon solar cells was performed by very-high-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. These solar cells, whose intrinsic μ c-Si:H layers were prepared by using a different total gas flow rate (F_total), behave much differently in performance, although their intrinsic layers have similar crystalline volume fraction, opto-electronic properties and a deposition rate of ～ 1.0~nm/s. The influence of F_total on the micro-structural properties was analyzed by Raman and Fourier transformed infrared measurements. The results showed that the vertical uniformity and the compact degree of μ c-Si:H thin films were improved with increasing F_total. The variation of the microstructure was regarded as the main reason for the difference of the J--V parameters. Combined with optical emission spectroscopy, we found that the gas temperature plays an important role in determining the microstructure of thin films. With F_total of 300~sccm, a conversion efficiency of 8.11% has been obtained for the intrinsic layer deposited at 8.5~\AA/s (1~\AA=0.1\,nm).     

Micromorph tandem solar cells: optimization of the microcrystalline silicon bottom cell in a single chamber system

We report on the development of single chamber deposition of microcrystalline and micromorph tandem solar cells directly onto low-cost glass substrates. The cells have pin single-junction or pin/pin double-junction structures on glass substrates coated with a transparent conductive oxide layer such as SnO₂ or ZnO. By controlling boron and phosphorus contaminations, a single-junction microcrystalline silicon cell with a conversion efficiency of 7.47% is achieved with an i-layer thickness of 1.2 μm. In tandem devices, by thickness optimization of the microcrystalline silicon bottom solar cell, we obtained an initial conversion efficiency of 9.91% with an aluminum (Al) back reflector without a dielectric layer. In order to enhance the performance of the tandem solar cells, an improved light trapping structure with a ZnO/Al back reflector is used. As a result, a tandem solar cell with 11.04% of initial conversion efficiency has been obtained.     

The p recombination layer in tunnel junctions for micromorph tandem solar cells

A new tunnel recombination junction is fabricated for n–i–p type micromorph tandem solar cells. We insert a thin heavily doped hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) p + recombination layer between the n a-Si:H and the p hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) layers to improve the performance of the n–i–p tandem solar cells. The effects of the boron doping gas ratio and the deposition time of the p-a-Si:H recombination layer on the tunnel recombination junctions have been investigated. The current-voltage characteristic of the tunnel recombination junction shows a nearly ohmic characteristic, and the resistance of the tunnel recombination junction can be as low as 1.5 ·cm 2 by using the optimized p-a-Si:H recombination layer. We obtain tandem solar cells with open circuit voltage V oc = 1.4 V, which is nearly the sum of the V oc s of the two corresponding single cells, indicating no V oc losses at the tunnel recombination junction.     

The study of a new n/p tunnel recombination junction and its application in a-Si：H/μc-Si：H tandem solar cells

This paper reports that a double N layer (a-Si:H/μc-Si:H) is used to substitute the single microcrystalline silicon n layer (n-μc-Si:H) in n/p tunnel recombination junction between subcells in a-Si:H/μc-Si:H tandem solar cells. The electrical transport and optical properties of these tunnel recombination junctions are investigated by current-voltage measurement and transmission measurement. The new n/p tunnel recombination junction shows a better ohmic contact. In addition, the n/p interface is exposed to the air to examine the effect of oxidation on the tunnel recombination junction performance. The open circuit voltage and FF of a-Si:H/μc-Si:H tandem solar cell are all improved and the current leakage of the subcells can be effectively prevented efficiently when the new n/p junction is implemented as tunnel recombination junction.     

InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well solar cells with an enhanced open-circuit voltage

In this paper,InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well solar cells (MQWSCs) with an In content of 0.15 are fabricated and studied.The short-circuit density,fill factor and open-circuit voltage (V oc) of the device are 0.7 mA/cm 2,0.40 and 2.22 V,respectively.The results exhibit a significant enhancement of V oc compared with those of InGaN-based hetero and homojunction cells.This enhancement indicates that the InGaN/GaN MQWSC offers an effective way for increasing V oc of an In-rich In x Ga 1 x N solar cell.The device exhibits an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 36% (7%) at 388 nm (430 nm).The photovoltaic performance of the device can be improved by optimizing the structure of the InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well.     

Microstructure evolution and passivation quality of hydrogenated amorphous silicon oxide(a-SiOx:H) on〈100〉- and 〈111〉-orientated c-Si wafers

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon oxide(a-SiOx:H) is an attractive passivation material to suppress epitaxial growth and reduce the parasitic absorption loss in silicon heterojunction(SHJ) solar cells. In this paper, a-SiOx:H layers on different orientated c-Si substrates are fabricated. An optimal effective lifetime(τ(eff)) of 4743 μs and corresponding implied opencircuit voltage(iV(oc)) of 724 mV are obtained on〈100〉-orientated c-Si wafers. While τ(eff) of 2429 μs and iV_oc of 699 mV are achieved on 111-orientated substrate. The FTIR and XPS results indicate that the a-SiOx:H network consists of SiOx(Si-rich), Si–OH, Si–O–SiHx, SiO2 ≡ Si–Si, and O3 ≡ Si–Si. A passivation evolution mechanism is proposed to explain the different passivation results on different c-Si wafers. By modulating the a-SiOx:H layer, the planar silicon heterojunction solar cell can achieve an efficiency of 18.15%.     

Performance improvement of CdS/Cu（In,Ga）Se2 solar cells after rapid thermal annealing

In this paper, we investigated the effect of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) on solar cell performance. An opto-electric conversion efficiency of 11.75% (Voc=0.64 V, Jsc = 25.88mA/cm2 , FF=72.08%) was obtained under AM 1.5G when the cell was annealed at 300℃ for 30s. The annealed solar cell showed an average absolute efficiency 1.5% higher than that of the as-deposited one. For the microstructure analysis and the physical phase confirmation, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectra, front surface reflection (FSR), internal quantum efficiency (IQE), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were respectively applied to distinguish the causes inducing the efficiency variation. All experimental results implied that the RTA eliminated recombination centers at the p-n junction, reduced the surface optical losses, enhanced the blue response of the CdS buffer layer, and improved the ohmic contact between Mo and Cu(In, Ga)Se2 (CIGS) layers. This leaded to the improved performance of CIGS solar cell.     

Improved performance of microcrystalline silicon solar cell with graded-band-gap silicon oxide buffer layer

Microcrystalline silicon(μc-Si:H) solar cell with graded band gap microcrystalline silicon oxide(μc-Si Ox:H) buffer layer is prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition and exhibits improved performance compared with the cell without it. The buffer layer moderates the band gap mismatch by reducing the barrier of the p/i interface, which promotes the nucleation of the i-layer and effectively eliminates the incubation layer, and then enhances the collection efficiency of the cell in the short wavelength region of the spectrum. The p/i interface defect density also decreases from 2.2 × 1012cm-2to 5.0 × 1011cm-2. This graded buffer layer allows to simplify the deposition process for the μc-Si:H solar cell application.     

Simulation and experimental study of a novel bifacial structure of silicon heterojunction solar cell for high efficiency and low cost

A novel structure of Ag grid/SiN_x/n~+-c-Si/n-c-Si/i-a-Si:H/p~+-a-Si:H/TCO/Ag grid was designed to increase the efficiency of bifacial amorphous/crystalline silicon-based solar cells and reduce the rear material consumption and production cost. The simulation results show that the new structure obtains higher efficiency compared with the typical bifacial amorphous/crystalline silicon-based solar cell because of an increase in the short-circuit current(J_(sc)), while retaining the advantages of a high open-circuit voltage, low temperature coefficient, and good weak-light performance. Moreover,real cells composed of the novel structure with dimensions of 75 mm × 75 mm were fabricated by a special fabrication recipe based on industrial processes. Without parameter optimization, the cell efficiency reached 21.1% with the J_(sc) of 41.7 mA/cm~2. In addition, the novel structure attained 28.55% potential conversion efficiency under an illumination of AM 1.5 G, 100 mW/cm~2. We conclude that the configuration of the Ag grid/SiN_x/n~+-c-Si/n-c-Si/i-a-Si:H/p~+-a-Si:H/TCO/Ag grid is a promising structure for high efficiency and low cost.     

β-FeSi2 as the bottom absorber of triple-junction thin-film solar cells: A numerical study

Using β-FeSi2 as the bottom absorber of triple-junction thin-film solar cells is investigated by a numerical method for widening the long-wave spectral response. The presented results show that the β-FeSi2 subcell can contribute 0.273 V of open-circuit voltage to the a-Si/μc-Si/β-FeSi2 triple-junction thin-film solar cell. The optimized absorber thicknesses for a- Si, μ-Si, and/3-FeSi2 subcells are 260 nm, 900 nm, and 40 nm, respectively. In addition, the temperature coefficient of the conversion efficiency of the a-Si/μc-Si//3-FeSi2 cell is -0.308 %/K, whose absolute value is only greater than that of the a-Si subcell. This result indicates that the a-Si/μc-Si/β-FeSi2 triple-junction solar cell has a good temperature coefficient. As a result, using β-FeSi2 as the bottom absorber can improve the thin-film solar cell performance, and the a-Si/μc-Si/β-FeSi2 triple-junction solar cell is a promising structure configuration for improving the solar cell efficiency.     

The n-type Si-based materials applied on the front surface of IBC-SHJ solar cells

Interdigitated back contact silicon hetero-junction(IBC-SHJ) solar cells exhibit excellent performance owing to the IBC and SHJ structures.The front surface field(FSF) layer composed of electric field passivation and chemical passivation has been proved to play an important role in IBC-SHJ solar cells.The electric field passivated layer n~+-a-Si: H, an n-type Si alloy with carbon or oxygen in amorphous phase, is simulated in this study to investigate its effect on IBC-SHJ.It is indicated that the n~+-a-Si: H layer with wider band gap can reduce the light absorption on the front side efficaciously,which hinders the surface recombination of photo-generated carriers and thus contributes to the improvement of the short circuit current density J_(sc).The highly doped n~+-a-Si: H can result in the remakable energy band bending, which makes it outstanding in the field passivation, while it makes little contribution to the chemical passivation.It is noteworthy that when the electric field intensity exceeds 1.3 × 10~5 V/cm, the efficiency decrease caused by the inferior chemical passivation is only 0.16%.In this study, the IBC-SHJ solar cell with a front n~+-a-Si: H field passivation layer is simulated, which shows the high efficiency of 26% in spite of the inferior chemical passivation on the front surface.     

The investigation of ZnO：Al2O3/metal composite back reflectors in amorphous silicon germanium thin film solar cells

Different aluminum-doped ZnO （AZO）/metal composite thin films, including AZO/Ag/Al, AZO/Ag/nickelchromium alloy （NiCr）, and AZO/Ag/NiCr/Al, are utilized as the back reflectors of p-i-n amorphous silicon germanium thin film solar cells. NiCr is used as diffusion barrier layer between Ag and Al to prevent mutual diffusion, which increases the short circuit current density of solar cell. NiCr and NiCr/AI layers are used as protective layers of Ag layer against oxidation and sulfurization, the higher efficiency of solar cell is achieved. The experimental results show that the performance of a-SiGe solar cell with AZO/Ag/NiCr/Al back reflector is best. The initial conversion efficiency is achieved to be 8.05%.     

Effect of emitter layer doping concentration on the performance of a silicon thin film heterojunction solar cell

A novel type of n/i/i/p heterojunction solar cell with a-Si:H(15nm)/a-Si:H(10nm)/ epitaxial c-Si(47μm)/epitaxial c-Si(3μm) structure is fabricated by using the layer transfer technique, and the emitter layer is deposited by hot wire chemical vapour deposition. The effect of the doping concentration of the emitter layer S d (Sd =PH3 /(PH3 +SiH4 +H2 )) on the performance of the solar cell is studied by means of current density-voltage and external quantum efficiency. The results show that the conversion efficiency of the solar cell first increases to a maximum value and then decreases with S d increasing from 0.1% to 0.4%. The best performance of the solar cell is obtained at S d = 0.2% with an open circuit voltage of 534 mV, a short circuit current density of 23.35mA/cm2 , a fill factor of 63.3%, and a conversion efficiency of 7.9%.     

Realizing high photovoltaic efficiency with parallel multijunction solar cells based on spectrum-splitting and-concentrating diffractive optical element

Based on the facts that multijunction solar cells can increase the efficiency and concentration can reduce the cost dramatically, a special design of parallel multijunction solar cells was presented. The design employed a diffractive optical element(DOE) to split and concentrate the sunlight. A rainbow region and a zero-order diffraction region were generated on the output plane where solar cells with corresponding band gaps were placed. An analytical expression of the light intensity distribution on the output plane of the special DOE was deduced, and the limiting photovoltaic efficiency of such parallel multijunction solar cells was obtained based on Shockley–Queisser's theory. An efficiency exceeding the Shockley–Queisser limit(33%) can be expected using multijunction solar cells consisting of separately fabricated subcells.The results provide an important alternative approach to realize high photovoltaic efficiency without the need for expensive epitaxial technology widely used in tandem solar cells, thus stimulating the research and application of high efficiency and low cost solar cells.     

Application of TiO2 with different structures in solar cells

The application of TiO2-based devices is mainly dependent on their crystalline structure,morphology,size,and exposed facets.Two kinds of TiO2 with different structures,namely TiO2 pompons and TiO2 nanotubes,have been prepared by the hydrothermal method.TiO2 with different structures is characterized by scanning electron microscopy(SEM),X-ray diffraction(XRD),and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller(BET) surface area analysis.Solar cells based on poly(3-hexylthiophene)(P3HT) and TiO2 with different structures are fabricated.In the device ITO/TiO2/P3HT/Au,the P3HT is designed to act as the electron donor,and TiO2 pompons and TiO2 nanotubes act as the electron acceptor.The effects of the TiO2 structure on the performance of hybrid heterojunction solar cells are investigated.The device with TiO2 pompons has an open circuit voltage(Voc) of 0.51 V,a short circuit current(Jsc) of 0.21 mA/cm2,and a fill factor(FF) of 28.3%.Another device with TiO2 nanotubes has a V oc of 0.5 V,J sc of 0.27mA/cm2,and FF of 28.4%.The results indicate that the TiO2 nanotubes with a unidimensional structure have better carrier transport and light absorption properties than TiO 2 pompons.Consequently,the solar cell based on TiO2 nanotubes has a better performance.     

Device simulation of lead-free CH_3NH_3SnI_3 perovskite solar cells with high efficiency

The lead-free perovskite solar cells(PSCs) have drawn a great deal of research interest due to the Pb toxicity of the lead halide perovskite.CH_3NH_3SnI_3 is a viable alternative to CH_3NH_3PbX_3,because it has a narrower band gap of 1.3 eV and a wider visible absorption spectrum than the lead halide perovskite.The progress of fabricating tin iodide PSCs with good stability has stimulated the studies of these CH_3NH_3SnI_3 based cells greatly.In the paper,we study the influences of various parameters on the solar cell performance through theoretical analysis and device simulation.It is found in the simulation that the solar cell performance can be improved to some extent by adjusting the doping concentration of the perovskite absorption layer and the electron affinity of the buffer and HTM,while the reduction of the defect density of the perovskite absorption layer significantly improves the cell performance.By further optimizing the parameters of the doping concentration(1.3 × 10~(16) cm~3) and the defect density(1 × 10~(15) cm~3) of perovskite absorption layer,and the electron affinity of buffer(4.0 eV) and HTM(2.6 eV),we finally obtain some encouraging results of the J_(sc) of 31.59 mA/cm~2,V_(oc) of 0.92 V,FF of 79.99%,and PCE of 23.36%.The results show that the lead-free CH_3NH_3SnI_3 PSC is a potential environmentally friendly solar cell with high efficiency.Improving the Sn~(2+) stability and reducing the defect density of CH_3NH_3SnI_3 are key issues for the future research,which can be solved by improving the fabrication and encapsulation process of the cell.     

Simulation design of P–I–N-type all-perovskite solar cells with high efficiency

According to the good charge transporting property of perovskite, we design and simulate a p–i–n-type all-perovskite solar cell by using one-dimensional device simulator. The perovskite charge transporting layers and the perovskite absorber constitute the all-perovskite cell. By modulating the cell parameters, such as layer thickness values, doping concentrations and energy bands of n-, i-, and p-type perovskite layers, the all-perovskite solar cell obtains a high power conversion efficiency of 25.84%. The band matched cell shows appreciably improved performance with widen absorption spectrum and lowered recombination rate, so weobtain a high J_(sc) of 32.47 m A/cm~2. The small series resistance of the all-perovskite solar cell also benefits the high J_(sc). The simulation provides a novel thought of designing perovskite solar cells with simple producing process, low production cost and high efficient structure to solve the energy problem.     

Boron implanted emitter for n-type silicon solar cell

The effects of ion doses on the properties of boron implanted Si for n-type solar cell application were investigated with doses ranging from 5×1014cm-2to 2×1015cm-2and a subsequent two-step annealing process in a tube furnace.With the help of the TCAD process simulation tool, knowledge on diffusion kinetics of dopants and damage evolution was obtained by fitting SIMS measured boron profiles. Due to insufficient elimination of the residual damage, the implanted emitter was found to have a higher saturation current density(J0e) and a poorer crystallographic quality. Consistent with this observation, V oc, J sc, and the efficiency of the all-implanted p+–n–n+solar cells followed a decreasing trend with an increase of the implantation dose. The obtained maximum efficiency was 19.59% at a low dose of 5×1014cm-2. The main efficiency loss under high doses came not only from increased recombination of carriers in the space charge region revealed by double-diode parameters of dark I–V curves, but also from the degraded minority carrier diffusion length in the emitter and base evidenced by IQE data. These experimental results indicated that clusters and dislocation loops had appeared at high implantation doses, which acted as effective recombination centers for photogenerated carriers.