High quality passivation for heterojunction solar cells by hydrogenated amorphous silicon suboxide films

In this letter, we report on our investigations of hydrogenated amorphous silicon suboxides (a-SiOx:H) used as a high quality passivation scheme for heterojunction solar cells. The a-SiOx:H films were deposited using high frequency (70 MHz) plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition by decomposition of carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and silane at a substrate temperature of around 155 degrees C. High effective lifetimes of outstanding 4 ms on 1 Omega cm n-type float-zone material and a surface recombination velocity of <= 2.6 cm/s have been repeatedly obtained. Optical analysis revealed a distinct decrease of blue light absorption in the a-SiOx:H films compared to commonly used intrinsic amorphous silicon passivation used in heterojunction cells. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.