Front contact layer of multiphase silicon-carbon in thin film silicon solar cell

Abstract

In order to increase the quantum efficiency as well as conversion efficiency, we propose the boron doped hydrogenated multiphase silicon-carbon (called as "multiphase silicon-carbon") as the front contact layer in thin film silicon solar cells. The multiphase silicon-carbon consists of amorphous carbon, amorphous silicon, and crystalline silicon-like clustering phase. We achieved a high conductivity and a low optical absorptance of multiphase silicon-carbon and compared it with the existing boron doped microcrystalline silicon. Applying this layer between transparent conductive oxide and the p layer, the amorphous silicon and silicon-germanium (a-Si/a-SiGe) double junction cell showed an increase of quantum efficiency in short wavelength and an improvement of the conversion efficiency by about 0.6% in 1 cm(2) area. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4756798]