Drastic reduction in surface recombination velocity of crystalline silicon by surface treatment using catalytically-generated radicals

A method of reducing surface recombination velocities (SRVs) of crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers is presented for the case when c-Si surfaces are passivated by amorphous Si (a-Si) thin films. It is demonstrated that the surface treatment of c-Si wafers prior to a-Si deposition, using hydrogen atoms generated by catalytic reaction of hydrogen gas with heated catalyzer, lowers SRV effectively, and that SRV is drastically reduced to less than 3 cm/s when a small amount of doping impurity is added during atomic hydrogen treatment.