High growth rate and gas utilisation in a-Si:H solar cells made with amplitude modulated VHF-CVD

Author

Rath, J.K. ; Biebericher, A.C.W. ; Schropp, R.E.I. ; van der Weg, W.F. ; Goedheer, W.J.

Author_Institution

SID-Phys. of Devices, Utrecht Univ., Netherlands

Volume

2

fYear

2003

fDate

18-18 May 2003

Firstpage

1748

Abstract

We have incorporated amorphous silicon i-layers made by amplitude modulated VHF plasma CVD into n-i-p solar cells. The cell efficiencies are similar to those obtained with standard device quality continuous wave (CW) a-Si:H i-layers, but at a high growth of 0.55 nm/s and gas utilization rate of /spl sim/50%. Due to the combined effect the efficient use of the SiH/sub 4/ is roughly 10 times better while the defect density (/spl sim/3-8/spl times/10/sup 15/ cm/sup -3/) and photosensitivity (4-6/spl times/10/sup 5/) of the a-Si:H material are not compromised. This happens in spite of the fact that higher silane radicals contribute significantly to the growth.

Keywords

amorphous semiconductors; elemental semiconductors; hydrogen; photoconductivity; plasma CVD; semiconductor growth; semiconductor thin films; silicon; solar cells; Si:H; SiH/sub 4/; amorphous Si:H solar cells; amplitude modulated VHF-plasma CVD; amplitude modulated very high frequency plasma chemical vapour deposition; continuous wave amorphous Si:H i-layers; defect density; gas utilization rate; growth rate; n-i-p solar cells; photosensitivity; silane radicals; solar cell efficiency;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 2003. Proceedings of 3rd World Conference on

Conference_Location

Osaka, Japan

Print_ISBN

4-9901816-0-3

Type

conf

Filename

1306271