Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Effect of Rapid Heat Treatment on the Crystal Defect Evolution and Electrical Properties of Highly Efficient Polycrystalline Silicon

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Silicon Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The existence of a large number of crystal defects in polycrystalline Si(poly-Si) has a significant impact on its electrical property. In order to solve this problem, this study adopts the industrially produced native efficient poly-Si wafers, with 120 s rapid heat treatment experimental conditions under different temperatures. The evolution of the poly-Si crystal defects such as the grain boundary and dislocation as well as the changes in the electrical properties of the samples before and after annealing have been analyzed.. The results show that the annealing process causes a significant reduction in the defects in the samples significantly and improvement in the electrical performance. After annealing at 1200 ∘C, the dislocation density of ploy-Si decreases to 710 cm−2 from 1120 cm−2, revealing a drop of 36.61%. Furthermore, a 1.62% reduction in the high Σ value (Σ27) grain boundary and 3.19% increase in the Σ3 grain boundaries. After the heat treatment, the minority carrier lifetime of the sample increases by up to 0.6 μs. In addition, the size of the grains increases and the dislocation density reduces while the grain orientation is not changed during the heat treatment. The results show that the performance of poly-Si does not linearly improve with temperature, but is related to the crystal structure of Si.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Di Sabatino M, Stokkan G (2013) Defect generation, advanced crystallization, and characterization methods for high-quality solar-cell silicon. Phys Status Solidi A 210(4):641–648

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Hartman K, Bertoni M, Serdy J et al (2008) Dislocation density reduction in multicrystalline silicon solar cell material by high temperature annealing. Appl Phys Lett 93(12):122108

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Mokhtari M, Fujiwara K, Koizumi H et al (2016) Effect of grain boundary grooves at the crystalmelt interface on impurity accumulation during the unidirectional growth of multicrystalline silicon. Scr Mater 117:73–76

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Peshcherova SM, Nepomnyashchikh AI, Pavlova LA (2014) The electric activity of special grain boundaries in multicrystalline silicon grown from metallurgical refined silicon. Tech Phys Lett 40(11):1000–1002

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Luo X, Prakash RR, Chen J et al (2016) Effect of Σ3 generation on random grain boundaries in multicrystalline silicon. Superlattices Microstruct 99:1–4

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Li X-Q, Yang D-R, Yu X-G, Que D-L (2011) Precipitation and ge-tering behaviors of copper in multicrystalline silicon used for solar cells. Sci Direct 21:691–696

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Lin HK, Wu MC, Chen CC, Lan CW (2016) Evolution of grain structures during directional solidification of silicon wafers. J Cryst Growth 439:40–46

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Ganapati V, Schoenfelder S, Castellanos S, Oener S et al (2010) Infrared birefringence imaging of residual stress and bulk defects in multicrystalline silicon. J Appl Phys 108:063528

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Gumbsch P, Riedle J, Hartmaier A et al (1998) Controlling factors for the Brittle-to-ductile transition in tungsten single crystals. Science 282:1293–1295

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Takeuchi S, Argon AS (1976) Review: steady-state creep of single-phase crystalline matter at high temperature. J Mater Sci 11:1542–1566

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Wang W, Yang D, Yu X, Que D (2008) Effect of point defects on the recombination activity of copper precipitates in p-type Czochralski silicon. J Mater Sci Mater Electron 19:S32–S35

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr. Liexing Zhou for the support in the EBSD analysis and Prof. Wei for the discussion about the experiment. This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61404063).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The National Engineering Laboratory for Vacuum Metallurgy, State Key Laboratory of Complex Nonferrous Metal Resources Clean Utilization, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, People’s Republic of China

    Hongyuan Shen, Longzhong Gao, Kuixian Wei, Wenhui Ma & Shaoyuan Li

Authors
  1. Hongyuan Shen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Longzhong Gao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kuixian Wei
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Wenhui Ma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Shaoyuan Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Kuixian Wei or Wenhui Ma.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Shen, H., Gao, L., Wei, K. et al. Effect of Rapid Heat Treatment on the Crystal Defect Evolution and Electrical Properties of Highly Efficient Polycrystalline Silicon. Silicon 11, 1083–1087 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-018-9904-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-018-9904-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation