Comparative Study of the Influence of c-Si:H, a-Si:H, pm-Si:H and c-SiOx as a Passivation Layer on the Performance of HIT n-c-Si Solar Cells

Authors Z. Dahlal1 , F. Hamdache1 , D. Rached1 , W.L. Rahal2,3
Affiliations

1Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas, Matériaux Conducteurs et Leurs Applications,U.S.T.O.M.B. – B.P. 1505, El M’naouar, Oran, Algérie

2Laboratoire d’Analyse et d’Application des Rayonnements, U.S.T.O.M.B. – B.P. 1505, El M’naouar, Oran, Algérie

3Département de Physique, Faculté des Sciences Exactes et de l’Informatique, Université Abdelhamid Ibn Badis de Mostaganem, Mostaganem, Algérie

Е-mail leila.rahal@univ-mosta.dz
Issue Volume 13, Year 2021, Number 6
Dates Received 26 February 2021; revised manuscript received 01 December 2021; published online 20 December 2021
Citation Z. Dahlal, F. Hamdache, D. Rached, et al., J. Nano- Electron. Phys. 13 No 6, 06002 (2021)
DOI https://doi.org/10.21272/jnep.13(6).06002
PACS Number(s) 73.61.Jc, 71.20.Mq, 88.40.hj, 88.40.jj
Keywords Solar cells (17) , HIT (9) , Amorphous silicon (7) , Potential barrier, SCAPS-1D (21) , J-V characteristic.
Annotation

One of the most important factors limiting the performance of Hetereojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer (HIT) c-Si solar cells is the defect density on the surface of crystalline silicon. A numerical modelling has been employed in order to choose the most efficient material as a passivation layer in a HIT c-Si solar cell. We have chosen for this study the following materials: hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon µc-Si:H (Egi-µc-Si:H  1.40 eV), hydrogenated amorphous silicon a-Si:H (Egi-a-Si:H  1.84 eV), hydrogenated polymorphous silicon pm-Si:H (Egi-pm-Si:H  1.96 eV) and hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon oxide µc-SiOx:H (Egi-µc-SiOx  2.5 eV). The simulation results show that the improvement of the electric field at the emitter with the use of µc-Si:H and a-Si:H as a passivation layer makes the power conversion efficiency of the HIT c-Si to increase from 25.42 to 26.34 %. The creation of a potential barrier for photogenerated holes at i-pm-Si:H/n-c-Si and µc-SiOx/n-c-Si junctions drops the efficiency from 23.87 to 3.10 %. This barrier prevents the passage of photogenerated holes towards the emitter which leads to a strong recombination rate of electron-hole pairs and therefore to a decrease in power efficiency. With a band gap of 1.84 eV, hydrogenated amorphous silicon a-Si:H is the most appropriate candidate for the elaboration of a passivation layer on the surface of crystalline silicon for this type of solar cells.

List of References