TY - JOUR

T1 - A silicon carbide-based highly transparent passivating contact for crystalline silicon solar cells approaching efficiencies of 24%

AU - Köhler, Malte

AU - Pomaska, Manuel

AU - Procel, Paul

AU - Santbergen, Rudi

AU - Zamchiy, Alexandr

AU - Macco, Bart

AU - Lambertz, Andreas

AU - Duan, Weiyuan

AU - Cao, Pengfei

AU - Klingebiel, Benjamin

AU - Li, Shenghao

AU - Eberst, Alexander

AU - Luysberg, Martina

AU - Qiu, Kaifu

AU - Isabella, Olindo

AU - Finger, Friedhelm

AU - Kirchartz, Thomas

AU - Rau, Uwe

AU - Ding, Kaining

N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported through the funding of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy in the framework of the TUKAN project (grant no. 0324198D) and the funding within the Helmholtz Energy Materials Foundry project. K.Q. thanks the financial support by the China and Germany Postdoctoral Exchange Program 2018 from the Office of China Postdoctoral Council and the Helmholtz Centre and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 61774173). A.Z. acknowledges the financial support from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, project no. 3.13378.2019/13.2. We also thank the Initiative and Networking Fund of the Helmholtz Association for funding of the JOSEPH cluster system via the Helmholtz Energy Materials Characterization Platform. We thank J. Wolff, A. Schmalen and S. Schiffer for providing high-quality deposition equipment and know-how for HWCVD. Furthermore, we thank K. Bittkau, O. Thimm, A. Doumit, I. Caspers, A. Mück, S. Lynen, H. Siekmann, H. Gattermann, V. Lauterbach, K. Wambach, U. Breuer and B. Zwaygardt for photothermal deflection spectroscopy measurement, SIMS measurements, laser cutting and cleaning of the wafers, as well as depositions of a-Si:H, ITO and metallization. Finally, we thank H. Gattermann for the proofreading. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/5

Y1 - 2021/5

N2 - A highly transparent passivating contact (TPC) as front contact for crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells could in principle combine high conductivity, excellent surface passivation and high optical transparency. However, the simultaneous optimization of these features remains challenging. Here, we present a TPC consisting of a silicon-oxide tunnel layer followed by two layers of hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon carbide (nc-SiC:H(n)) deposited at different temperatures and a sputtered indium tin oxide (ITO) layer (c-Si(n)/SiO2/nc-SiC:H(n)/ITO). While the wide band gap of nc-SiC:H(n) ensures high optical transparency, the double layer design enables good passivation and high conductivity translating into an improved short-circuit current density (40.87 mA cm−2), fill factor (80.9%) and efficiency of 23.99 ± 0.29% (certified). Additionally, this contact avoids the need for additional hydrogenation or high-temperature postdeposition annealing steps. We investigate the passivation mechanism and working principle of the TPC and provide a loss analysis based on numerical simulations outlining pathways towards conversion efficiencies of 26%.

AB - A highly transparent passivating contact (TPC) as front contact for crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells could in principle combine high conductivity, excellent surface passivation and high optical transparency. However, the simultaneous optimization of these features remains challenging. Here, we present a TPC consisting of a silicon-oxide tunnel layer followed by two layers of hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon carbide (nc-SiC:H(n)) deposited at different temperatures and a sputtered indium tin oxide (ITO) layer (c-Si(n)/SiO2/nc-SiC:H(n)/ITO). While the wide band gap of nc-SiC:H(n) ensures high optical transparency, the double layer design enables good passivation and high conductivity translating into an improved short-circuit current density (40.87 mA cm−2), fill factor (80.9%) and efficiency of 23.99 ± 0.29% (certified). Additionally, this contact avoids the need for additional hydrogenation or high-temperature postdeposition annealing steps. We investigate the passivation mechanism and working principle of the TPC and provide a loss analysis based on numerical simulations outlining pathways towards conversion efficiencies of 26%.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104802594&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41560-021-00806-9

DO - 10.1038/s41560-021-00806-9

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85104802594

VL - 6

SP - 529

EP - 537

JO - Nature Energy

JF - Nature Energy

SN - 2058-7546

IS - 5

ER -