Onno Gabriel

Quadruple-junction solar cells and modules based on amorphous and microcrystalline silicon with high stable efficiencies

Quadruple junction solar cells and modules are presented, which consist of hydrogenated amorphous (a-Si:H) and microcrystalline silicon (µc-Si:H) in the a-Si:H/a-Si:H/µc-Si:H/µc-Si:H configuration. The highest measured conversion efficiency of a mini-module with an aperture area of 61.44 cm2 was 13.4% before and 12.0% after more than 1000 h of light soaking, respectively. In this paper, we discuss the advantages of the quadruple junction design over the common tandem design, which is ascribed mainly to the fact that the total absorber thickness can be increased while electronic properties and stability are maintained or even improved. The role of the µc-SiOx:H intermediate reflector is highlighted and an optimization of the doping concentration in this layer is presented. Furthermore, the advantage of the high maximum power voltage for the monolithic cell interconnection laser design of modules is shown.

PECVD Intermediate and Absorber Layers Applied in Liquid-Phase Crystallized Silicon Solar Cells on Glass Substrates

Liquid-phase crystallized silicon absorber layers have been applied in heterojunction solar cells on glass substrates with 10.8% conversion efficiency and an open-circuit voltage of 600 mV. Intermediate layers of SiOx, SiNx, and SiOxNy, as well as the a-Si:H precursor layer, were deposited on 30 cm × 30 cm glass substrates using industrial-type plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition equipment. After crystallization on 3cm × 5cm area using a continuous-wave infrared laser line, the resulting polysilicon material showed high material quality with large grain sizes.

Liquid-Phase Crystallized Silicon Solar Cells on Glass: Increasing the Open-Circuit Voltage by Optimized Interlayers for n- and p-Type Absorbers

Liquid-phase crystallization (LPC) has proven to be a suitable method to grow large-grained silicon films on commercially well-available glass substrates. Zone-melting crystallization with high-energy-density line sources such as lasers or electron beams enabled polycrystalline grain growth with wafer equivalent morphology. However, the electronic quality is strongly affected by the material used as the interlayer between the glass and the silicon absorber. Open-circuit voltages above 630 mV, and efficiencies up to 11.8% were demonstrated using n-type absorbers on a sputtered interlayer comprising a triple stack of SiO2/SiNx/SiO2. In this study, we present our results to further improve the device performance by investigating the influence of the interlayer on the open-circuit voltage of the devices and characterize the properties of the absorber and interface using bias light-dependent quantum efficiency data and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images. Finally, we investigate the applicability of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) for passivation of p-type LPC absorbers.

Transient and stable species kinetics in pulsed cc-rf CF4/H2 plasmas and their relation to surface processes

Fluorocarbon plasmas are widely used in applications and as model systems for fundamental investigations of complex plasmas. In recent years pulsing of the rf discharge has been used as an additional parameter for process control, because many plasma parameters, e.g. densities and temperatures, become time dependent when the rf power is modulated. In this work tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy in the mid-IR (IR-TDLAS) was applied to measure time-resolved densities of the transient species CF and CF2 and that of the stable product C2F4 in pulsed CF4/H2 asymmetrical capacitively coupled radio-frequency plasmas at 13.56 MHz. Simultaneously, the thickness of amorphous thin fluorocarbon films (a-C:F) on the powered electrode was determined by means of in situ ellipsometry. Therefore, it was possible to study the correlation between gas phase species and thin film formation. The decay curves of the CF and CF2 densities in the off-phase of the pulsed rf plasma were fitted with a combination of first and second order processes involving the loss processes of these radicals in the gas phase and at the surfaces. Particularly, in the plasma off-phase, the loss of CF2 radicals forming C2F4 was found to be dominant in the CF2 kinetics, but of minor importance for C2F4 production. Plasma process parameters such as total pressure, gas composition, power and power modulation were varied to investigate the interaction between gas phase species and surfaces.

Influence of Chemical Composition and Structure in Silicon Dielectric Materials on Passivation of Thin Crystalline Silicon on Glass

In this study, various silicon dielectric films, namely, a-SiOx:H, a-SiNx:H, and a-SiOxNy:H, grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) were evaluated for use as interlayers (ILs) between crystalline silicon and glass. Chemical bonding analysis using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed that high values of oxidant gases (CO2 and/or N2), added to SiH4 during PECVD, reduced the Si-H and N-H bond density in the silicon dielectrics. Various three layer stacks combining the silicon dielectric materials were designed to minimize optical losses between silicon and glass in rear side contacted heterojunction pn test cells. The PECVD grown silicon dielectrics retained their functionality despite being subjected to harsh subsequent processing such as crystallization of the silicon at 1414 °C or above. High values of short circuit current density (Jsc; without additional hydrogen passivation) required a high density of Si-H bonds and for the nitrogen containing films, additionally, a high N-H bond density. Concurrently high values of both Jsc and open circuit voltage Voc were only observed when [Si-H] was equal to or exceeded [N-H]. Generally, Voc correlated with a high density of [Si-H] bonds in the silicon dielectric; otherwise, additional hydrogen passivation using an active plasma process was required. The highest Voc ∼ 560 mV, for a silicon acceptor concentration of about 10(16) cm(-3), was observed for stacks where an a-SiOxNy:H film was adjacent to the silicon. Regardless of the cell absorber thickness, field effect passivation of the buried silicon surface by the silicon dielectric was mandatory for efficient collection of carriers generated from short wavelength light (in the vicinity of the glass-Si interface). However, additional hydrogen passivation was obligatory for an increased diffusion length of the photogenerated carriers and thus Jsc in solar cells with thicker absorbers.

Two-dimensional flow characteristic of a hot expanding plasma

A hot argon plasma expansion into a low-pressure background is investigated by means of laser induced fluorescence on argon metastables. The result is a complete two-dimensional flow field of the expanding system that covers the area reaching from the nozzle of the plasma source to the shock front of the expansion. This flow field includes information on atom velocities, densities and temperatures. It consists of two different components: a fast, cool supersonically expanding one and a slow, hot component resulting from invasion of the background gas. This invading component is first present at the outside of the barrel shock and gradually invades the expansion towards the center axis. The supersonic component, dominating the first part of the expansion, shows all characteristics of rarefied hot gas flows: acceleration to twice the sonic velocity of the source, adiabatic cooling and a parallel temperature remaining higher than the perpendicular one. However, the invading component is much slower, but also hotter due to collisions in the expanding flow, and is already present before the shock front. The total flow of argon atoms is also described by computer simulations. The result shows the same behavior as the measured flow. The importance of the invading component for radical production is also demonstrated by LIF measurements on atomic oxygen that is produced from background O2 inside the expanding system.

Molecule synthesis in an Ar-CH4-O2-N2 microwave plasma

The formation of new molecules in a microwave plasma, created from a mixture of Ar, CH4, N2 and O2, is investigated by means of an in-depth study of the molecular abundance in the plasma. The molecules are detected by means of tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy and by absolute mass spectrometry. Three groups of molecules can be discerned in terms of molecular abundance: CO is predominantly formed, together with H2O, N2 and H2. The molecules CH4 and O2 are significantly depleted, but still abundant in a finite quantity. The third group is formed by several other species like NH3, NO, HCN etc. This tendency is expected to occur in every low temperature plasma containing C, O, H and N atoms. Furthermore, the combination of both techniques also allows us to make a clear distinction between the etching mode and deposition mode of the microwave reactor. Etching mainly occurs when the ratio of admixed gas flows Φ(O2)/Φ(CH4) > 0.5.

Nonequilibrium rovibrational energy distributions of hydrogen isotopologues in an expanding plasma jet.

State resolved densities of high rovibrationally excited hydrogen isotopologues H(2), HD, and D(2) in the electronic ground state have been measured in a supersonically expanding plasma jet. The obtained state distributions differ substantially from thermal equilibrium. Moreover, the distributions are not the same for H(2), HD, and D(2) indicating different formation and relaxation rates for each isotopologue. Mechanisms for this deviation from a Boltzmann distribution are given and compared to hydrogen reactions in other environments. The difference between the measured highest occupied rovibrational states in H(2), HD, and D(2) is ascribed to an isotope effect in the dissociation process.

Experimental study of surface contributions to molecule formation in a recombining N2/O2 plasma

A low pressure recombining Ar plasma to which mixtures of N2 and O2 were added has been studied to explore the relevance of surface related processes for the total chemistry. The abundances of the stable molecules N2, O2, NO, N2O and NO2 have been measured by means of a combination of infrared tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy and mass spectrometry.A gas phase chemical kinetics model was developed in CHEMKIN to investigate the contribution of homogeneous interactions to the conversion of the feedstock gases N2 and O2. At a partial pressure of N2 plus O2 less than 8 Pa, significant discrepancies between measured and calculated concentrations of N2O and NO2 were observed, indicating that heterogeneous processes are dominating the chemistry in this pressure range. At a partial pressure of N2 plus O2 higher than 40 Pa and a relatively high fraction of admixed O2 we observed a fair agreement between measured and calculated concentrations of NO molecules, indicating that homogeneous processes (notably N atom induced) are more dominant than heterogeneous processes.

Time resolved measurements of the CF2 rotational temperature in pulsed fluorocarbon rf plasmas

Knowledge of the absolute densities of small radicals like CF, CF2 and CF3 in fluorocarbon plasmas is essential for a fundamental understanding of plasma chemical processes and plasma surface interaction. Infrared absorption spectroscopy by means of tunable diode lasers (IR-TDLAS) was established and widely used for density measurements in the last decade. The often unknown parameter in the calculation of absolute radical densities from a measured absorption of a single line is the rotational temperature. In particular, a strong dependence of the line strength on rotational temperature has a significant influence on density calculation. In this paper we report on measurements of the CF2 rotational temperature in capacitively coupled CF4/H2 plasmas (CCP) with rf (13.56 MHz) powers up to 200 W. Rotational temperatures in continuous and pulsed modes of the discharge were found to be between 300 and 450 K. Furthermore, first measurements of the time dependence of the rotational temperature in pulsed rf plasma are presented. The rotational temperature rises in the plasma phase within 0.1 s and goes down again to the temperature of the background gas in the plasma pause within 0.5 s. It is also shown that accurate density measurements of the radicals by means of single line absorption need correct information about the rotational temperature and careful selection of a suitable absorption line.