Silicon-rich SiO2/SiO2 multilayers: A promising material for the third generation of solar cell

F. Gourbilleau (1) , C. Ternon (2) , D. Maestre (3) , Olivier Palais (3) , C. Dufour (1)

1 CIMAP - UMR 6252 - Centre de recherche sur les Ions, les MAtériaux et la Photonique
2 LTM - Laboratoire des technologies de la microélectronique
3 IM2NP - Institut des Matériaux, de Microélectronique et des Nanosciences de Provence

Si-rich-SiO 2 SRSO / SiO 2 multilayers MLs have been grown by reactive magnetron sputtering. The presence of silicon nanoclusters Si-ncls within the SRSO sublayer and annealing temperature influence optical absorption as well as photoluminescence. The optimized annealing temperature has been found to be 1100 ° C, which allows the recovery of defects and thus enhances photoluminescence. Four MLs with Si-ncl size ranging from 1.5 to 8 nm have been annealed using the optimized conditions and then studied by transmission measurements. Optical absorption has been modeled so that a size effect in the linear absorption coefficient in cm −1 has been evidenced and correlated with TEM observations. It is demonstrated that amorphous Si-ncl absorption is fourfold higher than that of crystalline Si-ncls.

Domaines: Matériaux; Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]; Physique Numérique [physics.comp-ph]; Optique [physics.optics]; Electromagnétisme; Matériaux; Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique; Optique / photonique

F. Gourbilleau, C. Ternon, D. Maestre, Olivier Palais, C. Dufour. Silicon-rich SiO2/SiO2 multilayers: A promising material for the third generation of solar cell. Journal of Applied Physics, 2009, 106 (1), pp.013501. ⟨10.1063/1.3156730⟩. ⟨hal-01624557⟩