Preparation of microcrystalline silicon solar cells on microcrystalline silicon carbide window layers grown with HWCVD at low temperature

N-type microcrystalline silicon carbide layers prepared by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition were used as window layers for microcrystalline silicon n–i–p solar cells. The microcrystalline silicon intrinsic and p-layers of the solar cells were prepared with plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition at a very high frequency. Amorphous silicon incubation layers were observed at the initial stages of the growth of the microcrystalline silicon intrinsic layer under conditions close to the transition from microcrystalline to amorphous silicon growth. ‘Seed layers’ were developed to improve the nucleation and growth of microcrystalline silicon on the microcrystalline silicon carbide layers. Raman scattering measurement demonstrates that an incorporation of a ‘seed layer’ can drastically increase the crystalline volume fraction of the total absorber layer. Accordingly, the solar cell performance is improved. The correlation between the cell performance and the structural property of the absorber layer is discussed. By optimizing the deposition process, a high short-circuit current density of 26.7 mA/cm2 was achieved with an absorber layer thickness of 1 μm, which led to a cell efficiency of 9.2%.