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A novel silver-doped nickel oxide hole-selective contact for crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells

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Abstract

Based on its band alignment, p-type nickel oxide (NiOx) is an excellent candidate material for hole transport layers in crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells, as it has a small ΔEV and large ΔEC with crystalline silicon. Herein, to overcome the poor hole selectivity of stoichiometric NiOx due to its low carrier concentration and conductivity, silver-doped nickel oxide (NiOx:Ag) hole transport layers with high carrier concentrations were prepared by co-sputtering high-purity silver sheets and pure NiOx targets. The improved electrical conductivity of NiOx was attributed to the holes generated by the Ag+ substituents for Ni2+, and moreover, the introduction of Ag+ also increased the amount of Ni3+ present, both of which increased the carrier concentration in NiOx. Ag+ doping also reduced the c-Si/NiOx contact resistivity and improved the hole-selective contact with NiOx. Furthermore, the problems of particle clusters and interfacial defects on the surfaces of NiOx:Ag films were solved by UV-ozone oxidation and high-temperature annealing, which facilitated separation and transport of carriers at the c-Si/NiOx interface. The constructed c-Si/NiOx: Ag solar cell exhibited an increase in open-circuit voltage from 490 to 596 mV and achieved a conversion efficiency of 14.4%.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61974076), and the China National Key R&D Program (Grant No. 2022YFC2807104).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology of Tianjin, Engineering Research Center of Thin Film Photoelectronic Technology, Institute of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology of Nankai University (Ministry of Education), Tianjin, 300350, China

    Junfeng Zhao, Xudong Yang, Zhongqing Zhang, Shengpeng Xie, Fangfang Liu, Yun Sun & Wei Liu

  2. Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China

    Anjun Han & Zhengxin Liu

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  1. Junfeng Zhao
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  2. Xudong Yang
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  3. Zhongqing Zhang
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  4. Shengpeng Xie
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  5. Fangfang Liu
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  6. Anjun Han
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  7. Zhengxin Liu
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  8. Yun Sun
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  9. Wei Liu
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Correspondence to Zhengxin Liu or Wei Liu.

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Zhao, J., Yang, X., Zhang, Z. et al. A novel silver-doped nickel oxide hole-selective contact for crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng. 18, 19 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-024-2384-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-024-2384-6

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