High-rate microcrystalline silicon for solar cells

Author

Smit, C. ; Korevaar, B.A. ; Petit, A.M.H.N. ; van Swaaij, R.A.C.M.M. ; Kessels, W.M.M. ; van de Sanden, M.C.M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Appl. Phys., Eindhoven Univ. of Technol., Netherlands

fYear

2002

fDate

19-24 May 2002

Firstpage

1170

Lastpage

1173

Abstract

In order to produce thin silicon films for solar cells at high growth rates we deposited films with a cascaded arc expanding thermal plasma. We demonstrate the power of this technique by applying amorphous films deposited at rates up to 1.4 nm/s in solar cells. We used the same deposition technique to produce microcrystalline silicon films. Growth rates up to 3.7 nm/s are achieved. The material structure is analyzed using Raman spectroscopy and XRD. We see that the crystalline fraction increases with the H₂ flow, whereas the amorphous and the void fraction decrease.

Keywords

Raman spectra; X-ray diffraction; crystal microstructure; elemental semiconductors; plasma CVD coatings; semiconductor growth; semiconductor thin films; silicon; solar cells; μc-Si films; Raman spectroscopy; Si; XRD; cascaded arc expanding thermal plasma; deposition technique; high growth rates; high-rate microcrystalline Si; solar cells; void fraction; Amorphous materials; Crystalline materials; Photovoltaic cells; Plasma materials processing; Raman scattering; Semiconductor films; Silicon; Spectroscopy; Thermal expansion; X-ray scattering;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2002. Conference Record of the Twenty-Ninth IEEE

ISSN

1060-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7471-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2002.1190815

Filename

1190815