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Photo-induced hydrogenation and rapid cooling measure on dislocation clusters of multi-crystalline silicon PERC solar cells

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Abstract

The dislocations are the deep level defects with a negative impact on the multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cells. Though potential mechanisms of dislocation formation on the silicon ingot have been studied, few investigations consider the effect of LED hydrogenation on dislocation clusters. In this study, we have explored the influence of hydrogenation on the dislocation clusters of large-area (244.34 ± 0.05 cm2) mc-Si solar cells using the high-intensity infrared LED source. However, applying normal cooling measure to hydrogenation will trigger the instability of the hydrogenation improvement effect due to residual thermal stress, so we proposed an appropriate rapid cooling measure (RCM) followed by hydrogenation and achieved optimized results. The results indicated that electrical properties, minority carrier lifetime, current density, power density and external quantum efficiency were enhanced through LED hydrogenation and RCM, and the degradation of mc-Si solar cells also was significantly suppressed. To estimate the content of dislocations after LED hydrogenation and RCM, we applied the X-ray diffraction techniques to calculate the dislocation density using the full-width at half maximum of the rocking curve at (111), (220), (311), (400) and (331) reflections. The dislocation density of mc-Si PERC solar cells was decreased by 0.12 × 108 cm−2 (±0.02 × 108 cm−2) after LED hydrogenation and RCM. Meanwhile, photoluminescence images also illustrated that LED hydrogenation passivated dislocation clusters as well as impurities and defects gathered by dislocations. Therefore, LED hydrogenation of dislocation clusters is an effective measure to improve the performance of dislocation-containing mc-Si solar cells.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support provided by Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (Grants no. KYCX19_1858), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 61804066), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grants no. BK20180596, BK20180601), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2020M671602), Jiangsu Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2018K112C) (2020K143B) and Lab and Equipment Management of Jiangnan University (JDSYS201906). Thanks to Wuxi Suntech Power Co. Ltd., for providing the test silicon cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Internet of Things Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China

    Jianbo Shao, Shaomin Li, Guoqing Chen & Tuo Zhu

  2. Jiangsu Provincial Research Center of Light Industrial Optoelectronic Engineering and Technology, Wuxi, 214122, China

    Jianbo Shao, Xi Xi, Guilin Liu, Shaomin Li, Ruoying Peng, Guoqing Chen & Tuo Zhu

  3. School of Science, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China

    Xi Xi, Guilin Liu, Ruoying Peng, Guoqing Chen & Tuo Zhu

  4. Wuxi Suntech Power Co. Ltd., Wuxi, 214208, China

    Xi Xi

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  1. Jianbo Shao
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  2. Xi Xi
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  3. Guilin Liu
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  4. Shaomin Li
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Correspondence to Xi Xi.

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Shao, J., Xi, X., Liu, G. et al. Photo-induced hydrogenation and rapid cooling measure on dislocation clusters of multi-crystalline silicon PERC solar cells. Bull Mater Sci 44, 48 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12034-020-02335-9

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