The research of N/I and I/P buffer layers in μC-Si:H N-I-P single-junction solar cells

Hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) intrinsic films and solar cells with n-i-p configuration were prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The influence of n/i and i/p buffer layers on the μc-Si:H cell performance were studied in detail. The experimental results demonstrated that the efficiency can be much improved when there´s a higher crystallinity at n/i interface and an optimized a-Si:H buffer layer at i/p interface. By combining above methods, the performance of μc-Si:H single-junction and a-Si:H/μc-Si:H tandem solar cells has been significantly improved.