Effective surface passivation of p-type crystalline silicon with silicon oxides formed by light-induced anodisation

Electronic surface passivation of p-type crystalline silicon by anodic silicon dioxide (SiO2) was investigated. The anodic SiO2 was grown by light-induced anodisation (LIA) in diluted sulphuric acid at room temperature, a process that is significantly less-expensive than thermal oxidation which is widely-used in silicon solar cell fabrication. After annealing in oxygen and then forming gas at 400 °C for 30 min, the effective minority carrier lifetime of 3-5 Ω cm, boron-doped Czochralski silicon wafers with a phosphorus-doped 80 Ω/□ emitter and a LIA anodic SiO2 formed on the p-type surface was increased by two orders of magnitude to 150 μs. Capacitance-voltage measurements demonstrated a very low positive charge density of 3.4 × 1011 cm-2 and a moderate density of interface states of 6 × 1011 eV-1 cm-2. This corresponded to a silicon surface recombination velocity of 62 cm s-1, which is comparable with values reported for other anodic SiO2 films, which required higher temperatures and longer growth times, and significantly lower than oxides grown by chemical vapour deposition techniques. Additionally, a very low leakage current density of 3.5 × 10-10 and 1.6 × 10-9 A cm-2 at 1 and -1 V, respectively, was measured for LIA SiO2 suggesting its potential application as insulation layer in IBC solar cells and a barrier for potential induced degradation.