Hot-wire CVD thin silicon films on crystalline silicon for solar cell applications

In this work we study the electronic passivation of crystalline silicon surfaces with thin silicon films deposited by hot-wire chemical vapour deposition. Both intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon and p-doped nanocrystalline silicon films were evaluated on p- and n-type float zone silicon wafers (1-10 /spl Omega//spl middot/cm). The effective surface recombination velocity was measured by the contactless quasi-steady-state photoconductance technique. Heterostructures consisting of a p-doped nanocrystalline silicon layer with a 10 nm thick intrinsic amorphous silicon buffer allowed effective surface recombination velocities of 120 and 170 cm/spl middot/s/sup -1/ on p- and n-type crystalline silicon. Current density-voltage characteristics of rectifying heterojunctions were also measured. These studies are of great interest to evaluate the possibility to obtain high efficiency heterojunction solar cells fully processed at low temperatures.