Fabrication of nc-Si/c-Si solar cells using hot-wire chemical vapor deposition and laser annealing

In this paper, we present the performance of Si heterojunction solar cells prepared by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition and laser annealing. Under high hydrogen-dilution-ratio conditions, the crystallinity of the phosphorous-doped emitter layers was greatly improved due to hydrogen-induced crystallization. The grain boundary defects of the nano-crystalline emitter layer were further promoted using a laser (355 nm) crystallization technique. It was found that both the short-circuit current density and fill factor of the Si heterojunction solar cells were mainly dependent on the energy density of the laser beam. An efficiency of 14.2% is achieved for the n-nc-Si/p-c-Si heterojunction solar cell under a laser irradiation density of 382 mW/cm2.