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High Efficiency Hydrogenated Nanocrystalline Silicon Solar Cells Deposited at High Rates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Guozhen Yue
Affiliation:
gyue@uni-solar.com, United Solar Ovonic LLC, Troy, Michigan, United States
Laura Sivec
Affiliation:
lsivec@uni-solar.com, United Solar Ovonic LLC, Troy, Michigan, United States
Baojie Yan
Affiliation:
byan@scholarone.com, United Solar Ovonic LLC, Troy, Michigan, United States
Jeff Yang
Affiliation:
jyang@uni-solar.com, United Solar Ovonic LLC, 1100 West Maple Road, Troy, Michigan, 48084, United States
Subhendu Guha
Affiliation:
sguha@uni-solar.com, United Solar Ovonic LLC, Troy, Michigan, United States
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Abstract

We report recent progress on hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) solar cells prepared at different deposition rates. The nc-Si:H intrinsic layer was deposited, using a modified very high frequency (MVHF) glow discharge technique, on Ag/ZnO back reflectors (BRs). The nc-Si:H material quality, especially the evolution of the nanocrystallites, was optimized using hydrogen dilution profiling. First, an initial active-area efficiency of 10.2% was achieved in a nc-Si:H single-junction cell deposited at ~5 Å/s. Using the improved nc-Si:H cell, we obtained 14.5% initial and 13.5% stable active-area efficiencies in an a-Si:H/nc-Si:H/nc-Si:H triple-junction structure. Second, we achieved a stabilized total-area efficiency of 12.5% using the same triple-junction structure but with nc-Si:H deposited at ~10 Å/s; the efficiency was measured at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Third, we developed a recipe using a shorter deposition time and obtained initial 13.0% and stable 12.7% active-area efficiencies for the same triple-junction design.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2010

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