Laser crystallised silicon-on-glass thin films and solar cells: Significance of the interface

Liquid-phase crystallised Si on-glass has emerged as a new PV material potentially capable of solar cell efficiencies comparable to that of mc-Si wafer cells. An interface between Si and glass is found to play a crucial role in realizing the efficiency potential. Transparent dielectrics, such as SiOx, SiCx, SiNx, are used as interface buffers to serve a few functions: Si wetting and adhesion; high transmission and antireflection; impurity diffusion control; interface passivation. Effects of different dielectrics and their combinations on Si film and solar cell properties are presented. The triple layer buffer of SiOx/SiNx/SiOx resulted in the best achieved efficiency of 11.7%.