Current mechanism of tunnel m.i.s. solar cells

Dark current/voltage characteristics have been examined as a function of temperature for two structures of A1-pSi m.i.s. solar cells. The solar cells have been prepared with interfacial oxide thickness ranging from 10 Å to 20 Å. The results show that the diode saturation current Jo for all oxide thicknesses behave as a majority-carrier current, highly dependent on the effective metal-to-semiconductor barrier height ÿms and the oxide-tunnel exponent X1/2¿. From the illuminated current/voltage characteristics the sum of ÿms and (KT/q)X1/2¿ is found to be in the range of 730¿1025 mV, increasing with increasing oxide thicknessand acceptor concentration.