Electron contact interlayers for low-temperature-processedcrystalline silicon solar cells

Jesus Ibarra Michel (Corresponding author), Ahn Huy Tuan Le, Di Yan, Willem-Jan H. Berghuis, Lars Korte, Anyao Liu, Sieu Pheng Phang, Wenhao Chen, Daniel Macdonald, Bart Macco, Ziv Hameiri, James Bullock (Corresponding author)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study focuses on electron-selective passivating contacts for crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells where an interlayer is used to provide a low contact resistivity betweenthe c-Si substrate and the metal electrode. These electron contact interlayers areused in combination with other passivating interlayers (e.g., a-Si:H, TiOx, and Nb2O5)to improve surface passivation whilst still permitting contact resistivities suitable forhigh-efficiency solar cells. We show that a wide variety of thermally evaporatedmaterials, most of which have ionic character, enable an Ohmic contact betweenn-type c-Si and Al. From this pool of compounds, we observed that CsBr has espe-cially promising behavior because of its excellent performance and thermal stabilitywhen combined with thin passivating layers. With different test structures, we wereable to demonstrate low contact resistance using TiOx/CsBr, Nb2O5/CsBr, and a-Si:H/CsBr stacks on n-type c-Si. The quality of the provided surface passivationdepended on the stack but we achieved the best overall passivation stability withTiOx/CsBr. Finally, we were able to demonstrate an efficiency >20% on a laboratory-scale solar cell that implements the TiOx/CsBr/Al stack as full-area rear-side electronselective contact.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages8
JournalProgress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications
VolumeXX
Issue numberX
Early online date20 Dec 2023
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 20 Dec 2023

Funding

This project was supported by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) through project RND013. J.B. acknowledges support from Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, through its Technology Fellowship Program. Open access publishing facilitated by The University of Melbourne, as part of the Wiley ‐ The University of Melbourne agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.

FundersFunder number
Australian Renewable Energy AgencyRND013

    Keywords

    • electron selective contacts
    • passivating contacts
    • silicon solar cells

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