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Role of MW-ECR hydrogen plasma on dopant deactivation and open-circuit voltage in crystalline silicon solar cells

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Abstract

Plasma hydrogenation is an efficient method to passivate intergrain and intragrain defects of polycrystalline silicon (pc-Si) solar cells. The hydrogenation experiments were carried out in hydrogen plasma generated in an electron cyclotron resonance system controlling different operating parameters such as microwave power (P MW), process time (t H) and hydrogenation temperature (T H) for a fixed hydrogen flux of 30 sccm. The hydrogenation of n+pp+ pc-Si solar cells resulted in an improvement in the open-circuit voltage. The improvement was correlated with the dopant deactivation due to the formation of boron–hydrogen bonding. This was demonstrated from the changes in the doping level after hydrogenation of n+p diode structures made using single crystalline silicon as a reference material. It was found that deactivation of boron was more pronounced at high microwave plasma power, in good agreement with the high open-circuit voltage values obtained on pc-Si mesa cells. On the other hand, the effect of longer hydrogenation time and higher temperature resulted in a decrease of boron deactivation, while an increase in V oc with a tendency of saturation at high T H was observed. Reasons for such behavior were thoroughly explained.

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Acknowledgments

The main author would like to express his thanks to the personnel of the ICUBE (formerly InESS) laboratory for their help and cooperation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Renewable Energy Laboratory (LER), Jijel University, BP 98, Ouled Aissa, Jijel, Algeria

    D. Madi

  2. CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K.S. Krishnan Road, New Delhi, India

    P. Prathap

  3. ICUBE Laboratory, 23 rue du Loess, BP 20 CR, 67073, Strasbourg Cedex 2, France

    A. Slaoui

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Correspondence to D. Madi.

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Madi, D., Prathap, P. & Slaoui, A. Role of MW-ECR hydrogen plasma on dopant deactivation and open-circuit voltage in crystalline silicon solar cells. Appl. Phys. A 118, 231–237 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-014-8665-z

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