a-Si/SiN x multilayered light absorber for solar cell

40 alternate a-Si/SiN (x) multilayer are incorporated as an absorber layer in a p-i-n solar cell. The device is fabricated using hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) technique. The structure of the multilayer film is examined by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) which shows distinct formation of alternate a-Si and SiN (x) layers. The a-Si and SiN (x) layers have thickness of similar to 3.5 and 4 nm, respectively. The photoluminescence (PL) of multilayer film shows bandgap energy of similar to 2.52 eV, is larger than that of the c-Si and a-Si. Dark and illuminated current-voltage (I-V) characterization of the ML films shows that these ML are photosensitive. In the present work, it is seen that the p-i-n structure with i-layer as ML quantum well (QW) structures show photovoltaic effect with relatively high open-circuit voltage (V (OC)). The increment of bandgap energy in PL and high V (OC) of the device is attributed to the quantum confinement effect (QCE).