The thermal stability of atomic H plasma produced interface defects on Si-SiO2 stack

C. Zhang*, K. J. Weber

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    1 Citation (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The Si-SiO2 interface is still very important in crystalline silicon solar cell devices. While hydrogen is important for the passivation of defects at the Si-SiO2 interface, atomic H at low temperatures can also introduce additional interface defects, which lead to substantially increased recombination. Previous work has shown that the defects are thermally unstable, however detailed properties of the defects have not been investigated. This paper investigates the thermal annealing behavior of Si-SiO2 interface defects introduced by atomic hydrogen using carrier lifetime and capacitance-voltage measurements. We show that the annealing process of the defect is not characterized by a single activation energy but rather by a spread of activation energies. Capacitance-voltage results indicate that atomic H introduces defects fairly uniformly over the entire energy gap. Comparison of the annealing of corona-induced defects and defects introduced directly by atomic H reveals similar but not identical behavior, suggesting some differences in the nature of the defects introduced.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationProgram - 35th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, PVSC 2010
    Pages3237-3241
    Number of pages5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2010
    Event35th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, PVSC 2010 - Honolulu, HI, United States
    Duration: 20 Jun 201025 Jun 2010

    Publication series

    NameConference Record of the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference
    ISSN (Print)0160-8371

    Conference

    Conference35th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, PVSC 2010
    Country/TerritoryUnited States
    CityHonolulu, HI
    Period20/06/1025/06/10

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