Large-grained polycrystalline silicon thin-film solar cells using AIC seed layers

Author

Gall, S. ; Schneider, J. ; Klein, J. ; Muske, M. ; Rau, B. ; Conrad, E. ; Sieber, I. ; Fuhs, W. ; Van Gestel, Di ; Gordon, I. ; Van Nieuwenhuysen, K. ; Carnel, L. ; Beaucarne, G. ; Poortmans, J. ; Stöger-Pollach, M. ; Schattschneider, P.

Author_Institution

Hahn-Meitner-Inst., Berlin, Germany

fYear

2005

Firstpage

975

Lastpage

978

Abstract

Large-grained polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) films were prepared on foreign substrates by epitaxial thickening of seed layers. The seed layers were formed by the aluminum-induced layer exchange (ALILE) process which is based on aluminum-induced crystallization (AIC) of amorphous silicon (a-Si). The epitaxial thickening was carried out at two different temperature regimes (low- and high-temperature approach). Using these large-grained poly-Si films first thin-film solar cells have been prepared. The best poly-Si thin-film solar cell obtained so far has reached an efficiency of 4.5% (high-temperature approach).

Keywords

aluminium; crystallisation; elemental semiconductors; epitaxial growth; grain size; passivation; semiconductor epitaxial layers; silicon; solar cells; thin film devices; 4.5 percent; AIC seed layers; Al; Si; aluminum-induced crystallization; aluminum-induced layer exchange; amorphous silicon; epitaxial thickening; large-grained polycrystalline silicon thin-film solar cells; Amorphous materials; Artificial intelligence; Crystallization; Photovoltaic cells; Semiconductor films; Semiconductor thin films; Silicon; Substrates; Temperature; Transistors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2005. Conference Record of the Thirty-first IEEE

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8707-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2005.1488295

Filename

1488295