Very low surface recombination velocity on p-type c-Si by high-rate plasma-deposited aluminum oxide

Aluminum oxide layers can provide excellent passivation for lowly and highly doped p-type silicon surfaces. Fixed negative charges induce an accumulation layer at the p-type silicon interface, resulting in very effective field-effect passivation. This paper presents highly negatively charged (Q(ox)=-2.1 X 10(12) cm(-2)) aluminum oxide layers produced using an inline plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system, leading to very low effective recombination velocities (similar to 10 cm s(-1)) on low-resistivity p-type substrates. A minimum static deposition rate (100 nm min(-1)) at least one order of magnitude higher than atomic layer deposition was achieved on a large carrier surfaces (similar to 1 m(2)) without significantly reducing the resultant passivation quality. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3250157]