23% efficient p-type crystalline silicon solar cells with hole-selective passivating contacts based on physical vapor deposition of doped silicon films

Di Yan, Andres Cuevas, Sieu Pheng Phang, Yimao Wan, Daniel Macdonald

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    98 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Of all the materials available to create carrier-selective passivating contacts for silicon solar cells, those based on thin films of doped silicon have permitted to achieve the highest levels of performance. The commonly used chemical vapour deposition methods use pyrophoric or toxic gases like silane, phosphine and diborane. In this letter, we propose a safer and simpler approach based on physical vapour deposition (PVD) of both the silicon and the dopant. An in-situ doped polycrystalline silicon film is formed, upon annealing, onto an ultrathin SiOx interlayer, thus providing selective conduction and surface passivation simultaneously. These properties are demonstrated here for the case of hole-selective passivating contacts, which present recombination current densities lower than 20 fA/cm2 and contact resistivities below 50 mΩ cm2. To further demonstrate the PVD approach, these contacts have been implemented in complete p-type silicon solar cells, together with a front phosphorus diffusion, achieving an open-circuit voltage of 701 mV and a conversion efficiency of 23.0%. These results show that PVD by sputtering is an attractive and reliable technology for fabricating high performance silicon solar cells.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number061603
    JournalApplied Physics Letters
    Volume113
    Issue number6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 6 Aug 2018

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