A vacuum directional solidification with high temperature gradient was performed to prepare low cost solar-grade multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) directly from metallurgical-grade mc-Si. The microstructure character...A vacuum directional solidification with high temperature gradient was performed to prepare low cost solar-grade multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) directly from metallurgical-grade mc-Si. The microstructure characteristic, grain size, boundary, solid-liquid growth interface, and dislocation structure under different growth conditions were studied. The results show that directionally solidified multicrystalline silicon rods with high density and orientation can be obtained when the solidification rate is below 60 μm/s. The grain size gradually decreases with increasing the solidification rate. The control of obtaining planar solid-liquid interface at high temperature gradient is effective to produce well-aligned columnar grains along the solidification direction. The growth step and twin boundaries are preferred to form in the microstructure due to the faceted growth characteristic of mc-Si. The dislocation distribution is inhomogeneous within crystals and the dislocation density increases with the increase of solidification rate. Furthermore, the crystal growth behavior and dislocation formation mechanism of mc-Si were discussed.展开更多
基金Projects (51002122, 51272211) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProject (2010ZF53064) supported by the Aeronautical Science Foundation of China+3 种基金Project (2012M51028) supported by the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of ChinaProject (2010JQ6005) supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province, ChinaProject (76-QP-2011) supported by the Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing in NWPU, ChinaProject (B08040) supported by the 111Project, China
文摘A vacuum directional solidification with high temperature gradient was performed to prepare low cost solar-grade multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) directly from metallurgical-grade mc-Si. The microstructure characteristic, grain size, boundary, solid-liquid growth interface, and dislocation structure under different growth conditions were studied. The results show that directionally solidified multicrystalline silicon rods with high density and orientation can be obtained when the solidification rate is below 60 μm/s. The grain size gradually decreases with increasing the solidification rate. The control of obtaining planar solid-liquid interface at high temperature gradient is effective to produce well-aligned columnar grains along the solidification direction. The growth step and twin boundaries are preferred to form in the microstructure due to the faceted growth characteristic of mc-Si. The dislocation distribution is inhomogeneous within crystals and the dislocation density increases with the increase of solidification rate. Furthermore, the crystal growth behavior and dislocation formation mechanism of mc-Si were discussed.