Maksym Plakhotnyuk

Low surface damage dry etched black silicon

Black silicon (bSi) is promising for integration into silicon solar cell fabrication flow due to its excellent light trapping and low reflectance, and a continuously improving passivation. However, intensive ion bombardment during the reactive ion etching used to fabricate bSi induces surface damage that causes significant recombination. Here, we present a process optimization strategy for bSi, where surface damage is reduced and surface passivation is improved while excellent light trapping and low reflectance are maintained. We demonstrate that reduction of the capacitively coupled plasma power, during reactive ion etching at non-cryogenic temperature (−20 °C), preserves the reflectivity below 1% and improves the effective minority carrier lifetime due to reduced ion energy. We investigate the effect of the etching process on the surface morphology, light trapping, reflectance, transmittance, and effective lifetime of bSi. Additional surface passivation using atomic layer deposition of Al2O3 significant...

Surface passivation and carrier selectivity of the thermal-atomic-layer-deposited TiO2 on crystalline silicon

Here, we demonstrate the use of an ultrathin TiO2 film as a passivating carrier-selective contact for silicon photovoltaics. The effective lifetime, surface recombination velocity, and diode quality dependence on TiO2 deposition temperature with and without a thin tunneling oxide interlayer (SiO2 or Al2O3) on p-type crystalline silicon (c-Si) are reported. 5-, 10-, and 20-nm-thick TiO2 films were deposited by thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) in the temperature range of 80–300 °C using titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) and water. TiO2 thin-film passivation layers alone result in a lower effective carrier lifetime compared with that with an interlayer. However, SiO2 and Al2O3 interlayers enhance the TiO2 passivation of c-Si surfaces. Further annealing at 200 °C in N2 gas enhances the surface passivation quality of TiO2 tremendously. From these findings, design principles for TiO2–Si heterojunction with optimized photovoltage, interface quality, and electron extraction to maximize the photovoltage of TiO2–Si heterojunction photovoltaic cells are formulated. Diode behaviour was analysed with the help of experimental, analytical, and simulation methods. It is predicted that TiO2 with a high carrier concentration is a preferable candidate for high-performance solar cells. The possible reasons for performance degradation in those devices with and without interlayers are also discussed.