Abstract
In order to improve the efficiency of a solar cell based on silicon, one must find a compromise between its price and crystalline quality. That is precisely why the knowledge of defects present in the material is of primary importance. This paper studies the defects in commercially available cheap Schottky titanium/gold silicon wafers. The electrical properties of the diodes were defined by using current–voltage and capacitance–voltage measurements. Low series resistance and ideality factor are proofs of the good quality of the sample. The concentration of the acceptors is in accordance with the manufacturer’s specifications. Deep level transient spectroscopy measurements were used to identify the defects. Three hole traps were found with activation energies equal to 0.093 eV, 0.379 eV, and 0.535 eV. Comparing the values with the available literature, the defects were determined as connected to the presence of iron interstitials in the silicon. The quality of the silicon wafer seems good enough to use it as a substrate for the solar cell heterojunctions.
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Acknowledgements
This work has been partially supported by the statutory grant Wroclaw University of Technology, S50013, by the National Science Centre (Decision Nos. DEC-2012/06/A/ST7/00398 and DEC-2013/11/B/ST7/01385). Author K.G. would like to acknowledge the financial support in the form of a scholarship from a special-purpose grant awarded to Faculty of Fundamental Problems of Technology by Ministry of Science and Higher Education in 2016 for research and development of young scientists and Ph.D. students.
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Gwóźdź, K., Placzek-Popko, E., Mikosza, M. et al. Investigation of Defects Origin in p-Type Si for Solar Applications. J. Electron. Mater. 46, 4562–4566 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-017-5444-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-017-5444-6