The effect of p-layers deposited under varying conditions on hydrogenated amorphous silicon p-i-n homojunction solar cell performance

Author

Dawson, R.M.A. ; Nag, S.S. ; Wronski, C.R. ; Maley, N.

Author_Institution

Electron. Mater. & Processing Res. Lab., Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA, USA

fYear

1993

fDate

10-14 May 1993

Firstpage

960

Lastpage

965

Abstract

Substrate temperature and doping gas ratios are used to vary the boron and hydrogen content of p-type hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). The effects of the doping gas ratio (B₂H₆:SiH₄) and substrate temperature have been studied and conditions were used such as to give optical gaps and dark conductivity activation energies which changed by as much as 0.3 eV while the difference between them remained unchanged. The effects of changes in the absorption coefficient and activation energy on p-i-n solar cell device characteristics are quantified by comparing the measured thin film properties with the collection efficiencies and dark and light current-voltage characteristics

Keywords

amorphous semiconductors; elemental semiconductors; energy gap; hydrogen; p-i-n photodiodes; p-n homojunctions; semiconductor device testing; semiconductor doping; semiconductor thin films; silicon; solar cells; B₂H₆; Si:H; SiH₄; absorption coefficient; activation energy; collection efficiency; dark I-V characteristics; dark conductivity activation energy; deposition; device characteristics; doping gas ratios; light I-V characteristics; optical gap; p-i-n homojunction solar cell; p-layers; performance; substrate temperature; thin film semiconductor; Absorption; Amorphous silicon; Boron; Conductivity; Doping; Hydrogen; Optical films; PIN photodiodes; Substrates; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1993., Conference Record of the Twenty Third IEEE

Conference_Location

Louisville, KY

Print_ISBN

0-7803-1220-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.1993.347090

Filename

347090