Physics and Technology of Amorphous-Crystalline Heterostructure Silicon Solar Cells

✍ Scribed by Wilfried van Sark, Lars Korte (auth.), Wilfried G. J. H. M. van Sark, Lars Korte, Francesco Roca (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 602
• Series: Engineering Materials 0
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Today’s solar cell multi-GW market is dominated by crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafer technology, however new cell concepts are entering the market. One very promising solar cell design to answer these needs is the silicon hetero-junction solar cell, of which the emitter and back surface field are basically produced by a low temperature growth of ultra-thin layers of amorphous silicon. In this design, amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) constitutes both „emitter“ and „base-contact/back surface field“ on both sides of a thin crystalline silicon wafer-base (c-Si) where the electrons and holes are photogenerated; at the same time, a-Si:H passivates the c-Si surface. Recently, cell efficiencies above 23% have been demonstrated for such solar cells.

In this book, the editors present an overview of the state-of-the-art in physics and technology of amorphous-crystalline heterostructure silicon solar cells. The heterojunction concept is introduced, processes and resulting properties of the materials used in the cell and their heterointerfaces are discussed and characterization techniques and simulation tools are presented.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages -
Introduction – Physics and Technology of Amorphous-Crystalline Heterostructure Silicon Solar Cells....Pages 1-12
Heterojunction Silicon Based Solar Cells....Pages 13-43
Wet-Chemical Conditioning of Silicon Substrates for a -Si:H/ c -Si Heterojunctions....Pages 45-94
Electrochemical Passivation and Modification of c-Si surfaces....Pages 95-130
Deposition Techniques and Processes Involved in the Growth of Amorphous and Microcrystalline Silicon Thin Films....Pages 131-160
Electronic Properties of Ultrathin a-Si:H Layers and the a-Si:H/c-Si Interface....Pages 161-221
Intrinsic and Doped a -Si:H /c -Si Interface Passivation....Pages 223-259
Photoluminescence and Electroluminescence from Amorphous Silicon/Crystalline Silicon Heterostructures and Solar Cells....Pages 261-299
Deposition and Properties of TCOs....Pages 301-330
Contact Formation on a-Si:H/c-Si Heterostructure Solar Cells....Pages 331-375
Electrical Characterization of HIT Type Solar Cells....Pages 377-404
Band Lineup Theories and the Determination of Band Offsets from Electrical Measurements....Pages 405-444
General Principles of Solar Cell Simulation and Introduction to AFORS-HET....Pages 445-458
Modeling an a -Si:H/ c -Si Solar Cell with AFORS-HET....Pages 459-482
Two-Dimensional Simulations of Interdigitated Back Contact Silicon Heterojunctions Solar Cells....Pages 483-519
Technology and Design of Classical and Heterojunction Back Contacted Silicon Solar Cells....Pages 521-537
a-Si:H/c-Si Heterojunction Solar Cells: A Smart Choice for High Efficiency Solar Cells....Pages 539-572
Back Matter....Pages -

✦ Subjects

Optical and Electronic Materials;Optics, Optoelectronics, Plasmonics and Optical Devices;Surfaces and Interfaces, Thin Films