nm-scaled workfunction mapping of the interfaces of silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cell using Kelvin probe force microscopy

We performed workfunction mapping of the cleaved interface of silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cell. While it has been widely accepted that the efficiency of solar cells depends on their electric contacts at various interfaces, no direct information on the electronic properties had been obtained on nm-scale. In this work, we employed Kelvin probe force microscopy (KFM) and simultaneously measured the workfunction and morphology of the cleaved interfaces on nm-scale for the first time. We show the measured workfunction differences between the surface layers on the cleaved SHJ solar cell, and discuss how such information can be used to improve the quality of the devices.