SIPS 2018

DETAILLED PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Microcrystalline Silicon Grown on Glass for Photo- and Thermophotovoltaic Applications
Karen Gambaryan¹; Torsten Boeck²;
¹DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS OF SEMICONDUCTORS AND MICROELECTRONICS, YEREVAN STATE UNIVERSITY, Yerevan, Armenia; ²LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE FOR CRYSTAL GROWTH,, Berlin, Germany;
PAPER: 411/AdvancedMaterials/Regular (Oral)
SCHEDULED: 17:10/Wed./Grego (50/3rd)

ABSTRACT:
Thin-film Si solar cells on glass have the potential to reduce both material usage and production costs as compared to wafer-based Si solar cells [1-3]. The first sample under consideration was prepared first by deposition of a-Si onto glass substrates by physical vapor deposition at room temperature, followed by heating from the front side to ~300°C and deposition of an indium metallic solvent. Droplets form and move along the surface, leaving traces of c-Si, a process referred to as amorphous-liquid-crystalline transition [4,5]. At the preparation of the second sample, an additional silicon layer with the thickness of 400 nm was deposited on an ALC layer. A sample, when after that a c-Si was grown on the seed layer by steady-state liquid phase epitaxy from indium solution will be referred as a third sample. SEM characterization shows that microcrystalline Si layer with grain sizes of up to several tens of micrometers was grown. Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry has shown that the resulting samples have a strong absorption edge in the mid-infrared region around 1960 cm−1. I–V measurements show that the lower surface resistance (1.3 kΩ) has sample #2, but higher one (35.7 kΩ) – sample #3, due to the high purity of crystallites grown by SSLPE. Magnetic field dependence of the electric sheet resistance was measured in Faraday geometry at room temperature. On MR curves, six well-resolved oscillations with an average period of δB=0.1214 T were revealed. Either Aharonov–Bohm effect or kinetic phenomena taking place in the grains boundaries at current flow are responsible for those oscillations. Since the period of A–B oscillations is given by δB=4Φ0/πDe2, where Φ0=h/e is the quantum flux, a diameter of De=215±10 nm is obtained. Presented results will be promising with regard to the designated use in photo- and thermophotovoltaics.

References:
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[5] R. Bansen, C. Ehlers, T. Teubner, K. Bottcher, K. Gambaryan, J. Schmidtbauer, T. Boeck,
Journal of Photonics for Energy 6 (2016) 025501-025501-10.