A structural study of CN treated amorphous silicon

Recently, a remarkable technique to overcome the problem of light-induced degradation in amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cells using a cyanide (CN) treatment has been developed. Structural and bonding characteristics of CN in a-Si has been studied using ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. It was found that CN incorporation results in more than just the termination of dangling bonds. The connectivity of the covalent random network increases because the CN changes from triply bonded, which is a common form in molecular CN, to the singly bonded form. This may be the mechanism by which CN incorporation produces significant reductions in light-induced degradation.