Polycrystalline silicon for thin film solar cells

The authors report on the characterisation of epitaxial Si on Si substrates grown at temperatures around 450°C as one prerequisite for crystalline Si deposition on low temperature resistant foreign substrates and describe two novel approaches aimed to produce large grained seeding films for subsequent polycrystalline Si deposition on glass substrates. A modified solution growth process at temperatures around 600-650°C produces polycrystalline Si seeding films with grains laterally extending several 100 μm on borosilicate glass substrates. In it second approach, the authors use polycrystalline β-FeSi₂ films as a seed for Si deposition