Comparison of multicrystalline silicon surfaces after wet chemical etching and hydrogen plasma treatment: application to heterojunction solar cells

The modifications of the surface and subsurface properties of p-type multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) after wet chemical etching and hydrogen plasma treatment were investigated. A simple heterojunction (HJ) solar cell structure consisting of front grids/ITO/(n)a-Si:H/(p)mc-Si/Al was used for investigating the conversion efficiency. It is found that the optimized wet chemical etching and cleaning processes as a last technological step before the deposition of the a-Si:H emitter are more favorable to HJ solar cells fabrication than the hydrogenation. Solar cells on p-type mc-Si were prepared without high-efficiency features (point contacts, back surface field). They exhibited efficiencies up to 13% for a cell area of 1 cm2 and 12% for a cell area of 39 cm2.