Pinhole density and contact resistivity of carrier selective junctions with polycrystalline silicon on oxide
- authored by
- T. F. Wietler, D. Tetzlaff, J. Krügener, M. Rienäcker, F. Haase, Y. Larionova, R. Brendel, R. Peibst
- Abstract
In the pursuit of ever higher conversion efficiencies for silicon photovoltaic cells, polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) layers on thin silicon oxide films were shown to form excellent carrier-selective junctions on crystalline silicon substrates. Investigating the pinhole formation that is induced in the thermal processing of the poly-Si on oxide (POLO) junctions is essential for optimizing their electronic performance. We observe the pinholes in the oxide layer by selective etching of the underlying crystalline silicon. The originally nm-sized pinholes are thus readily detected using simple optical and scanning electron microscopy. The resulting pinhole densities are in the range of 6.6 × 106 cm-2 to 1.6 × 108 cm-2 for POLO junctions with selectivities close to S10 = 16, i.e., saturation current density J0c below 10 fA/cm2 and contact resistivity ρc below 10 mΩcm2. The measured pinhole densities agree with values deduced by a pinhole-mediated current transport model. Thus, we conclude pinhole-mediated current transport to be the dominating transport mechanism in the POLO junctions investigated here.
- Organisation(s)
-
Institute of Electronic Materials and Devices
Laboratory of Nano and Quantum Engineering
Institute of Solid State Physics
- External Organisation(s)
-
Institute for Solar Energy Research (ISFH)
- Type
- Article
- Journal
- Applied physics letters
- Volume
- 110
- ISSN
- 0003-6951
- Publication date
- 19.06.2017
- Publication status
- Published
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
- Electronic version(s)
-
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4986924 (Access:
Closed)
