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Wet Chemical Treatment of Monocrytalline Silicon Wafer Surfaces

  • SOLAR ENGINEERING MATERIALS SCIENCE
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Abstract

Investigations of the influence of the optimized process of wet chemical treatment on the optical characteristics of the silicon monocrystalline wafers surface have been carried out. It was found that chemical treatment of a silicon wafer surface with a KOH solution with a concentration of 45% in deionized water at a temperature of 75°C for 4 min leads to etching of the damaged surface layer, thereby reducing the number of surface recombination centers of charge carriers. The use of ozone for cleaning from organic and other contaminants and the replacement of isopropyl alcohol in a solution with KOH replaced by ALKATEX surfactant allows the plates to be textured at higher temperatures in a relatively short time and to reduce material costs. The use of an optimized wet chemical treatment process makes it possible to texture monocrystalline silicon wafers and obtain a pyramid on the surface with a base width from 1 to 4 μm and a height of ~1.5–3 μm, which will make it possible to reduce the reflection coefficient of electromagnetic radiation by more than 3 times in relation to plates with a smooth surface, in the spectral range of 600–800 nm, the reflection coefficient decreased to a value of 8.7%. A decrease in the reflection coefficient from the silicon wafer surface should lead to an increase in the transmittance of the supplying electromagnetic radiation of the silicon wafer, which will increase the number of the solar cell quanta penetrating the photoactive region, as a result of which the magnitude of the short-circuit current and the open-circuit voltage should increase. Investigation of the load current–voltage characteristic of a heterojunction with an intrinsic thin-layer (HIT) solar cell based on a textured monocrystalline silicon wafer showed an efficiency value of 22.92% under standard test conditions.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to the staff of the R&D Center Thin-Film Technologies in Energy for valuable assistance in the process of creating and studying HIT structural solar cells, as well as to the staff of the International Solar Energy Institute for valuable advice when discussing the research results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tashkent University of Information Technologies, 230100, Nukus, Uzbekistan

    O. K. Ataboev

  2. R&D Center of Thin Film Technologies in Energetics, 194064, St. Petersburg, Russia

    E. I. Terukov & G. G. Shelopin

  3. St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University, 197376, St. Petersburg, Russia

    E. I. Terukov

  4. Ioffe Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 194021, St. Petersburg, Russia

    E. I. Terukov

  5. Physical–Technical Institute SPA Physics–Sun, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, 100084, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

    R. R. Kabulov

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  1. O. K. Ataboev
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  2. E. I. Terukov
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  3. G. G. Shelopin
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  4. R. R. Kabulov
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Correspondence to O. K. Ataboev.

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Ataboev, O.K., Terukov, E.I., Shelopin, G.G. et al. Wet Chemical Treatment of Monocrytalline Silicon Wafer Surfaces. Appl. Sol. Energy 57, 363–369 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3103/S0003701X21050042

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