Porous silicon-based passivation and gettering in polycrystalline silicon solar cells

In this work, we report on the effect of introducing a superficial porous silicon (PS) layer on the electrical characteristics of polycrystalline silicon solar cells. The PS layer was formed using a vapour etching (VE)-based method. In addition to its known anti-reflecting action, the forming hydrogen-rich PS layer acts as a passivating agent for the surface of the cell. As a result we found an improvement of the I-F characteristics in dark conditions and AM1 illumination. We show that when the formation of a superficial PS layer is followed by a heat treatment, gettering of impurities from the polycrystalline silicon material is possible. After the removal of the PS layer and the formation of the photovoltaic (PV) structure, we observed an increase of the light-beam-induced-current (LBIC) for treatment temperatures not exceeding 900 degreesC. An improvement of the bulk minority carrier diffusion length and the grain boundary (GB) recombination velocity were observed as the temperature rises, although a global decrease of the LBIC current was observed for temperatures greater than 900 degreesC. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.