1. Amorphous/crystalline silicon interface defects induced by hydrogen plasma treatments.
- Author
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Geissbühler, Jonas, De Wolf, Stefaan, Demaurex, Bénédicte, Seif, Johannes P., Alexander, Duncan T. L., Barraud, Loris, and Ballif, Christophe
- Subjects
- *
AMORPHOUS alloys , *CRYSTALLINE electric field , *SILICON , *SOLAR cells , *PASSIVATION - Abstract
Excellent amorphous/crystalline silicon interface passivation is of extreme importance for high-efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cells. This can be obtained by inserting hydrogen-plasma treatments during deposition of the amorphous silicon passivation layers. Prolonged hydrogen-plasmas lead to film etching. We report on the defect creation induced by such treatments: A severe drop in interface-passivation quality is observed when films are etched to a thickness of less than 8 nm. Detailed characterization shows that this decay is due to persistent defects created at the crystalline silicon surface. Pristine interfaces are preserved when the post-etching film thickness exceeds 8 nm, yielding high quality interface passivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2013
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