Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-f46jp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-15T06:51:08.954Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Optical Properties of Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon, Silicon-Germanium and Silicon-Carbon Thin Films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2011

R.M. Dawson ,
Y.M. Li ,
M. Gunes ,
D. Heller ,
S. Nag ,
R.W. Collins ,
C.R. Wronski ,
M. Bennett  and
Y.M. Li
R.M. Dawson
Affiliation:
The Center for Electronic Materials and Processing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA., 16802
Y.M. Li
Affiliation:
The Center for Electronic Materials and Processing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA., 16802
M. Gunes
Affiliation:
The Center for Electronic Materials and Processing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA., 16802
D. Heller
Affiliation:
The Center for Electronic Materials and Processing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA., 16802
S. Nag
Affiliation:
The Center for Electronic Materials and Processing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA., 16802
R.W. Collins
Affiliation:
The Center for Electronic Materials and Processing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA., 16802
C.R. Wronski
Affiliation:
The Center for Electronic Materials and Processing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA., 16802
M. Bennett
Affiliation:
Solarex Thin Film Division, 826 Newtown-Yardley Rd., Newtown, PA., 18940.
Y.M. Li
Affiliation:
Solarex Thin Film Division, 826 Newtown-Yardley Rd., Newtown, PA., 18940.
Get access

Abstract

The optical properties of solar cell grade hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), silicon germanium (a-SiGe:H) and silicon carbon (a-SiC:H) alloy thin films have been investigated over a wide photon energy range (0.8–4.8 eV) using a combination of subgap photoconductivity, reflection and transmission, and spectroscopie ellipsometry techniques in order to obtain accurate optical functions for solar cell modelling. Studies on films with thicknesses ranging from a few hundred Å to a few microns show that the optical spectra obtained by the different techniques agree closely over the energy ranges of overlap and display no thickness dependence from the Urbach tail energies and above. Thus, the results appear to be free of measurement and sample related artifacts. Three different methods provide a common value for the optical gap within ±0.02 eV and the result for a-Si:H is ∼0.1 eV below the mobility gap.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 258: Symposium A – Amorphous Silicon Technology – 1992 , 1992 , 595
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Li, Y.-M., Fieselmann, B.F. and Catalano, A., Proc. of the 21st IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1231 (1991).Google Scholar
2. Aspnes, D.E., Studna, A.A., and Kinsbron, E., Phys. Rev. B 29, 768 (1984).Google Scholar
3. Collins, R.W. in Amorphous Silicon and Related Materials, edited by Fritzsche, H. (World Scientific Publishing Co., New York, 1988), p. 1003.Google Scholar
4. Cody, G.D., Wronski, C.R., Abeles, B., Stephens, R.B., and Brooks, B., Solar Cells 2, 227 (1980).Google Scholar
5. Lee, S., Kumar, S., and Wronski, C.R., J. of Non-CrysL Solids 114, 316 (1989).Google Scholar
6. Wronski, G.R., Lee, S., Hicks, M., and Kumar, S., Phys. Rev. Lett 63, 1420 (1989).Google Scholar
7. Hasegawa, S. and Imai, Y., Phil. Mag. B 46, 239 (1982).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8. Freeman, E.C. and Paul, W., Phys. Rev. B 20, 716 (1979).Google Scholar
9. Cody, G.D. in Semiconductors and Semimetals, Vol. 21B, edited by Pankove, J.I. (Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1984) pp. 11–82.Google Scholar
10. Jackson, W.B., Kelso, S.M., Tsai, C.C., Allen, J.W., and Oh, S.-J., Phys. Rev. B 31, 5187 (1985).Google Scholar
11. Frova, A. and Selloni, A. in Tetrahedrally-Bonded Amorphous Semiconductors, edited by Adler, D. and Fritzsche, H. (Plenum Press, New York, 1985), pp. 271–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12. Khan, A.A., Mathine, D., Woollam, J.A. and Chung, Y., Phys. Rev. B 28, 7229 (1983).Google Scholar
13. An, I., Li, Y.M., Wronski, C.R., Nguyen, H.V., and Collins, R.W., Appl. Phys. Lett, 59, 2543 (1991).Google Scholar