Characterization of silicon heterojunctions for Solar Cells

Jean-Paul Kleider (1) , José Alvarez (1) , Martin Labrune (2, 3) , Pere Roca I Cabarrocas (2) , Olga Alexandrovna Maslova (1) , Wilfried Favre (1) , Marie-Estelle Gueunier-Farret (1)

1 LGEP - Laboratoire de génie électrique de Paris
2 LPICM - Laboratoire de physique des interfaces et des couches minces [Palaiseau]
3 TOTAL S.A. - Gas & Power R&D

Conductive-probe atomic force microscopy (CP-AFM) measurements reveal the existence of a conductive channel at the interface between p-type hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and n-type crystalline silicon (c-Si) as well as at the interface between n-type a-Si:H and p-type c-Si. This is in good agreement with planar conductance measurements that show a large interface conductance. It is demonstrated that these features are related to the existence of a strong inversion layer of holes at the c-Si surface of (p) a-Si:H/(n) c-Si structures, and to a strong inversion layer of electrons at the c-Si surface of (n) a-Si:H/(p) c-Si heterojunctions. These are intimately related to the band offsets, which allows us to determine these parameters with good precision.

Domains: Physics [physics]; Condensed Matter [cond-mat]; Materials Science [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Jean-Paul Kleider, José Alvarez, Martin Labrune, Pere Roca I Cabarrocas, Olga Alexandrovna Maslova, et al.. Characterization of silicon heterojunctions for Solar Cells. Nanoscale Research Letters, 2011, 6, pp.152. ⟨10.1186/1556-276X-6-152⟩. ⟨hal-00641696⟩