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Study of Crystallinity in μc-Si:H Films Deposited by Cat-CVD for Thin Film Solar Cell Applications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Cheng-Hang Hsu ,
Yi-Peng Hsu ,
Fang-Hong Yao ,
Yen-Tang Huang ,
Chuang-Chuang Tsai ,
Hsiao-Wen Zan ,
Chien-Chung Bi ,
Chun-Hsiung Lu  and
Chih-Hung Yeh
Cheng-Hang Hsu
Affiliation:
[email protected], National Chiao-Tung University, Department of Photonics, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Province of China
Yi-Peng Hsu
Affiliation:
[email protected], National Chiao-Tung University, Department of Photonics, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Province of China
Fang-Hong Yao
Affiliation:
[email protected], National Chiao-Tung University, Department of Photonics, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Province of China
Yen-Tang Huang
Affiliation:
[email protected], National Chiao Tung University, Department of Photonics, 1001 Ta Hsueh Road, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan, Hsinchu, 30010, Taiwan, Province of China, 886-3-5712121-52922
Chuang-Chuang Tsai
Affiliation:
[email protected], National Chiao-Tung University, Department of Photonics, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Province of China
Hsiao-Wen Zan
Affiliation:
[email protected], National Chiao-Tung University, Department of Photonics, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Province of China
Chien-Chung Bi
Affiliation:
[email protected], NexPower Technology Corporation, Taichung, Taiwan, Province of China
Chun-Hsiung Lu
Affiliation:
[email protected], NexPower Technology Corporation, Taichung, Taiwan, Province of China
Chih-Hung Yeh
Affiliation:
[email protected], NexPower Technology Corporation, Taichung, Taiwan, Province of China
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Abstract

The crystallinity of the hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) film was known to influence the solar cell efficiency greatly. Also hydrogen was found to play a critical role in controlling the crystallinity. Instead of employing conventional plasma deposition techniques, this work focused on using catalytic chemical vapor deposition (Cat-CVD) to study the effect of hydrogen dilution and the filament-to-substrate distance on the crystallinity, deposition rate, microstructure factor and electrical property of the μc-Si:H film. We found that the substrate material and structure can affect the crystallinity of the μc-Si:H film and the incubation effect. Comparing bare glass, TCO-coated glass, a-Si:H-coated glass and μc-Si:H-coated glass, the microcrystalline phase grows the fastest onto μc-Si:H surface, but the slowest onto a-Si:H surface. Surprisingly, the template effect lasted for more than a thousand atomic layers of silicon.

Keywords

photovoltaiccrystal growthchemical vapor deposition (CVD) (deposition)
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1245: Symposium A – Amorphous and Polycrystalline Thin-Film Silicon Science and Technology-2010 , 2010 , 1245-A21-05
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2010

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