High open-circuit voltage values on fine-grained thin-film polysilicon solar cells

Grain boundaries are known to be the main limiting factor for a high performance of polysilicon solar cells. Defects at these grain boundaries serve as recombination centers for minority and majority carriers. Grain boundaries are also known to be paths for enhanced hydrogen diffusion, which results in passivation of part of the defects. In this paper, we show that grain boundaries are also paths for an enhanced phosphorus diffusion that limits the effect of hydrogen passivation. Phosphorus spikes along the grain boundaries enhance the junction area and determine the collection and the recombination volumes. Avoiding this preferential diffusion of phosphorus atoms during emitter formation, we obtained open-circuit voltages (V-oc) up to 536 mV on polysilicon material with a grain size of only 0.2 mu m. These high V-oc values can only be accounted for by theory if a much smaller grain boundary recombination velocity is assumed than what was previously accepted for p-n junctions on fine-grained polysilicon solar cells. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.