Electrical properties and degradation behavior of hydrogenated amorphous Si alloys for solar cells

Abstract

The electrical properties and the degradation behavior of hydrogenated amorphous silicon alloys (a-Si_1−x A _x : H, with A=C, Ge, B, P) in designs of pin, pip, nin, and MOS structures are investigated by measuring the dark and light I(V) characteristics and the spectral response as well as the space-charge-limited current (SCLC), the time of flight (TOF) of carriers and the field effect (FE). These investigations give an overview of our recent work combined with new results emphasizing the physics of the a-Si:H pin solar cells. We discuss the stabilizing influence on the degradation behavior achieved by profiling the i layers of the pin solar cells with P and B. Two kinds of pin solar cells, namely glass/SnO₂/p(C)in/metal and glass/metal/pin/ITO, are investigated and an explanation of their different spectral response behavior is given. SCLC measurements lead to the conclusion that trapping is also involved in the degradation mechanism, as is recombination. TOF experiments on a-Si_1−x Ge _x : H pin diodes indicate that the incorporation of Ge widens the tail-state distribution below the conduction band. FE measurements showed densities of gap states of about 5×l0¹⁶cm⁻³eV⁻¹.