Influence of the transparent conductive oxide layer deposition step on electrical properties of silicon heterojunction solar cells

W. Favre (1) , J. Coignus (1) , N. Nguyen (1) , Raphaël Lachaume (2) , R. Cabal (1) , Delfina Munoz (1)

1 DTS - Département des Technologies Solaires
2 CEA-LETI - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives - Laboratoire d'Electronique et de Technologie de l'Information

This work deals with the understanding of the transport behavior of different deposited Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) layers on the emitter of n-type heterojunction solar cells. A complete study based on effective lifetime measurements has been carried out on samples with different ITO thicknesses to evaluate the passivation quality before and after ITO deposition, showing that increasing the ITO thickness degrades the passivation properties only at low injection level. Further characterizations coupled with numerical simulations demonstrate that such a behavior is due to recombination at the ITO/(p) a-Si:H interface induced by the ITO layer.

Mots clés: silicon; solar cells; heterojunction; illumination; passivation

Domaines: Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique; Matériaux; Electronique

W. Favre, J. Coignus, N. Nguyen, Raphaël Lachaume, R. Cabal, et al.. Influence of the transparent conductive oxide layer deposition step on electrical properties of silicon heterojunction solar cells. Applied Physics Letters, 2013, 102 (18), ⟨10.1063/1.4804985⟩. ⟨hal-01240492⟩