Generation Mechanism of Inhomogeneous Minority Carrier Lifetime Distribution in High Quality mc-Si Wafers and the Impacts on Electrical Performance of Wafers and Solar Cells

To find out the causation of inhomogeneous minority carrier lifetime distribution in high quality multicrystalline silicon （mc-Si） wafers, impurities and lattice defects were systematically studied by means of Fourier transform infrared （FTIR） spectroscopy and metallography, Inhomogeneously distributed oxygen impurity and dislocations were demonstrated to be key leading factors, and the restriction mechanism was discussed. Scattering process caused by ionized impurities and dislocations decreased carrier mobility, while carrier concentration was not significantly affected. Measurements showed that resistivity was higher and more dispersive in low lifetime area. Solar cells were fabricated with these wafers. Cells＇ efficiency of inhomogeneous ones exhibited averagely 0.27% lower than the regular ones in absolute terms. Recombination centers and leakage loss induced by dislocations and impurities led to the reduction in shunt resistors and open-circuit voltage, and then affected the performance of cells.

Minority carrier lifetime evaluation of periphery edge region in high-performance multicrystalline ingot produced by seed-assisted directional solidification

A high-performance multicrystalline silicon （mc-Si） ingot was produced by seed-assisted directional solidification, and the minority carrier lifetime of the periphery edge region was evaluated. The defects and impurities in the periphery edge region of the silicon wafers were systematically studied with photoluminescence （PL） imaging, minority carrier lifetime mapping, and Fourier transform infrared （FTIR） spectroscopy. Their relationships with the minority carrier lifetime were investigated. The concentration of substitutional carbon, interstitial oxygen, and dislocation clusters is not directly correlated with the low minority carrier lifetime of the edge zone of the mc-Si ingot. Inhomogeneous grain size distribution and contamination with iron impurities were demonstrated to be the main factors affecting the low minority carrier lifetime. By controlling the impurities and improving the grain size distribution, a modified furnace was designed and a higher-quality mc-Si ingot was manufactured.

Lower reflectivity and higher minority carrier lifetime of hand-tailored porous silicon

Solar cell grade crystalline silicon with very low reflectivity has been obtained by electrochemically selective erosion.The porous silicon（PS） structure with a mixture of nano-and micro-crystals shows good antireflection properties on the surface layer, which has potential for application in commercial silicon photovoltaic devices after optimization.The morphology and reflectivity of the PS layers are easily modulated by controlling the electrochemical formation conditions（i.e., the current density and the anodization time）.It has been shown that much a lower reflectivity of approximately 1.42% in the range 380-1100 nm is realized by using optimized conditions.In addition, the minority carrier lifetime of the PS after removing the phosphorus silicon layer is measured to be ～3.19 μs.These values are very close to the reflectivity and the minority carrier lifetime of Si3N4 as a passivation layer on a bulk silicon-based solar cell（0.33% and 3.03 μs, respectively）.

Crystalline silicon surface passivation investigated by thermal atomic-layer-deposited aluminum oxide

Atomic-layer-deposited（ALD） aluminum oxide（Al2O3） has demonstrated an excellent surface passivation for crystalline silicon（c-Si） surfaces, as well as for highly boron-doped c-Si surfaces. In this paper, water-based thermal atomic layer deposition of Al2O3 films are fabricated for c-Si surface passivation. The influence of deposition conditions on the passivation quality is investigated. The results show that the excellent passivation on n-type c-Si can be achieved at a low thermal budget of 250℃ given a gas pressure of 0.15 Torr. The thickness-dependence of surface passivation indicates that the effective minority carrier lifetime increases drastically when the thickness of Al2O3 is larger than 10 nm. The influence of thermal post annealing treatments is also studied. Comparable carrier lifetime is achieved when Al2O3 sample is annealed for 15 min in forming gas in a temperature range from 400℃ to 450℃. In addition, the passivation quality can be further improved when a thin PECVD-SiNx cap layer is prepared on Al2O3, and an effective minority carrier lifetime of2.8 ms and implied Voc of 721 mV are obtained. In addition, several novel methods are proposed to restrain blistering.

Study on irradiation-induced defects in GaAs/AlGaAs core–shell nanowires via photoluminescence technique

To gain a physical insight into the radiation effect on nanowires（NWs）, the time resolved photoluminescence（TRPL）technique is used to investigate the carrier dynamic behaviors in GaAs/AlGaAs core–shell NWs before and after 1-MeV proton irradiation with fluences ranging from 1.0 × 10^（12） cm^（-2） to 3.0 × 10^（13） cm^（-2）. It is found that the degradations of spectral peak intensity and minority carrier lifetime show similar trends against irradiation fluence, which is closely related to the displacement defects induced by irradiation. We also find that the proton irradiation-induced defects behave as Shockley–Read–Hall（SRH） recombination center trapping free carriers. Finally, the defect concentration could be estimated through measuring the minority carrier lifetime.

Variation of passivation behavior induced by sputtered energetic particles and thermal annealing for ITO/SiO_x/Si system

The damage on the atomic bonding and electronic state in a SiO_x（1.4-2.3 nm）/c-Si（150 μm） interface has been investigated.This occurred in the process of depositing indium tin oxide（ITO） film onto the silicon substrate by magnetron sputtering.We observe that this damage is caused by energetic particles produced in the plasma（atoms,ions,and UV light）.The passivation quality and the variation on interface states of the SiO_x/c-Si system were mainly studied by using effective minority carrier lifetime（τ_（eff）） measurement as a potential evaluation.The results showed that the samples＇ τ_（eff）was reduced by more than 90%after ITO formation,declined from 107 μs to 5 μs.Following vacuum annealing at 200 ℃,the τ_（eff） can be restored to 30 μs.The components of Si to O bonding states at the SiO_x/c-Si interface were analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS） coupled with depth profiling.The amorphous phase of the SiO_x layer and the ＂atomistic interleaving structure＂ at the SiO_x/c-Si interface was observed by a transmission electron microscope（TEM）.The chemical configuration of the Si-O fraction within the intermediate region is the main reason for inducing the variation of Si dangling bonds（or interface states） and effective minority carrier lifetime.After an appropriate annealing,the reduction of the Si dangling bonds between SiO_x and near the c-Si surface is helpful to improve the passivation effect.

Collaborative R＆D between multicrystalline silicon ingots and battery efficiency improvement--effect of shadow area in multicrystalline silicon ingots on cell efficiency

We characterized strip-like shadows in cast multicrystalline silicon(mc-Si) ingots. Blocks and wafers were analyzed using scanning infrared microscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, laser scanning confocal microscopy, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray energy-dispersive spectrometry, and microwave photoconductivity decay technique. The effect on solar cell performance is discussed. The results show that the non-microcrystalline shadow region in Si ingots consists of precipitates of Fe, O, and C. The size of these Fe–O–C precipitates found at the shadow region is25 μm. Fe–O–C impurities can slightly reduce the minority carrier lifetime of the wafers while severely decrease in shunt resistance, leading to the increase in reverse current of the solar cells and degradation in cell efficiency.

Effects of substrate characteristics on the passivation performance of ALD-Al_2O_3 thin film for high-efficiency solar cells

Atom layer deposition （ALD）-Al2O3 thin films are considered effective passivation layers for p-type silicon surfaces. A lower surface recombination rate was obtained through optimizing the deposition parameters. The effects of some of the basic substrate characteristics including material type, bulk resistivity and surface morphology on the passivation performance of ALD-Al2O3 are evaluated in this paper. Surface recombination velocities of 7.8 cm/s and 6.5 cm/s were obtained for p-type and n-type wafers without emitters, respectively. Substrates with bulk resistivity ranging from 1.5 to 4 Ω · cm were all great for such passivation films, and a higher implied Voc of 660 mV on the 3 Ω · cm substrate was achieved. A minority carrier lifetime （MCL） of nearly 10 μs higher was obtained for cells with a polished back surface compared to those with a textured surface, which indicates the necessity of the polishing process for high-efficiency solar cells. For n-type semi-finished solar cells, a lower effective front surface recombination velocity of 31.8 cm/s was acquired, implying the great potential of （ALD）-Al2O3 thin films for high-efficiency n-type solar cells.

N^+P photodetector characterization using the quasi-steady state photoconductance decay method

When a material is irradiated, it becomes more electrically conductive due to the absorption of the electromagnetic radiation. As a result, the number of free electrons and holes changes and raises its electrical con- ductivity. A simple but interesting phenomenon to characterise a fabricated n＋p photodetector in order to determine its linearity （photoresponse） and photoconductance was employed. Using the transient decay when the irradiation source is switched off, the minority carrier concentration, effective lifetime and surface recombination velocity present at the surface of the detector were measured.