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The

lattice structure of the semiconductor materials is crystalline.



Let's look at some properties of the crystalline lattice.

In week 2 we have already introduced its lattice properties.

Crystalline silicon has a cubic diamond structure.

The crystalline lattice means that atoms are arranged in a certain pattern, which
repeats itself.

A crystalline lattice has long-range order and symmetry.

However, it does not mean that this pattern is the same in every direction.

Or in other words: if we make a large cut through the lattice, the various planes
you can make do not look the same.

Here we see two planes of two different cuts in a crystalline silicon lattice, which
originally consisted out of three by three by three unit cells.

We see two important surfaces:

The first one is reversed to the 100 surface and the normal of this plane points in
the 100 direction.

The silicon at a 100 surface always has two back-bonds and two other valence
electrons pointing to the front.

The second surface is the 111 plane.

It can be characterized by three silicon back-bonds and one valence electron
pointing in the normal to the plane.

Why are these directions important?

As we have discussed in week 3, we have direct and indirect band gap materials.

This can be expressed in the so-called electronic band dispersion diagram.

On the vertical axis you have the energy position of the valence and conduction
band and on the horizontal axis the crystal momentum, or in other words: the
momentum of the charge carriers.

To be excited into the conduction band, the charge carriers in an indirect band
gap material require a change in energy and in momentum.

Here we see the real electronic band structure of the crystalline silicon.

The white area reflects the energy levels in the forbidden band gap.

The horizontal axis reflects the lattice momentum in various directions.

The band gap of silicon is determined by the lowest energy point of the
conduction band at x, related to the 100 direction, and the highest energy value
of the valence band, at gamma.

Now we zoom in to the band gap area.

The band gap energy is the difference between those two levels and equals 1.12
eV, or 1107 nm, expressed in wavelengths.

This transition is an indirect transition.

I repeat again, the charge carriers need energy and momentum transfer to be
excited.

As you can see, crystalline silicon has a direct transition as well.

However, this transition has an energy of 3.4 eV, which equals a wavelength of
364 nm.

This is in the blue spectral part.

For an indirect band gap material it's less likely that a photon, above the band
gap, is able to excite the electron into the conduction band in reference to a
direct band gap material.

Consequently, the absorption coefficient of crystalline silicon in reference to
direct band gap materials, like GaAs and InP, is significantly lower, as we can see
in this plot.

Crystalline silicon is indicated by the red line, whereas GaAs and InP is indicated
in yellow and green.

You can see that in the visible spectrum crystalline silicon absorbs less than the
GaAs and InP, but below 364 nm, it absorbs just as much as GaAs and InP,
because silicon has direct band to band transition here as well.

Germanium, indicated by the blue line, is like silicon:
it is an indirect band gap material.

It has a band gap of 0.67 eV, which means it already starts to absorb light at
wavelengths below 850 nm.

In the visible part, germanium has some direct transitions as well.

Let's consider the design rules for solar cells as introduced in week 3.


Let's start with spectral utilization.

A band gap of 1.12 eV means that in theory we can generate a maximum short
circuit current density of 45 mA per square centimeter, using crystallin silicon.

Let's consider the third design rule: light trapping.

First, we look at a wavelength around 800 nm.

Crystalline silicon has an absorption coefficient of 1000 per centimeter.

You can simply calculate, using Lamberts law, that to realize an absorption of
90% of the light intensity at 800 nm, it requires an absorption path length of 23
microns.

Around a wavelength of 970 nm, crystalline silicon has an absorption coefficient
of 100 per centimeter, and it requires an absorption path length of 230 microns
to absorb 90% of all the light.

This is a typical thickness of silicon wafer.

This demonstrates that the light trapping techniques become important for
crystalline silicon absorber layers above a wavelength of 900 nm.

Let's consider the last design rule, which is the utilization of the band gap energy.

As discussed in week 3, the band gap utilization is determined by the
recombination losses.

As silicon is an indirect band gap material, only Auger recombination and SRH
recombination will determine the open circuit voltage.

If we consider SRH, the recombination of charge carriers is related to the
electrons trapped at defect states.

In view of defects in the bulk of silicon, we can make a general difference
between 2 types of silicon wafers:

Monocrystalline silicon and multicrystalline silicon, or also called polycrystalline
silicon.

Monocrystalline silicon, or also called single-crystalline, is a crystalline solid, in
which the crystal lattice is continuous unbroken without grain boundaries over
the entire solid, up to the edges.

In contrast, polycrystalline silicon, often abbreviated with polysilicon, is a
material that consists of many small crystalline grains, with random orientations.

Between the grains polysilicon has grain boundaries.



Here you see 2 pictures of monocrystalline and multicrystalline wafers.

Monocrystalline silicon wafer has 1 uniform color, whereas in multicrystalline
silicon, the various grains are clearly visible for the human eye.

At the grain boundaries we find lattice mismatches.

As a result, many defects reside at the grain boundaries.

Consequently, the lifetime of charge carriers in polycrystalline silicon is shorter
than for monocrystalline silicon, due to the SRH recombination.

The more grain boundaries in the material, the shorter the lifetime of the charge
carriers.

It means that the grain size plays a role as well.

In this figure, from a paper of Bergmann, we see the relation between the open
circuit voltage of various solar cells developed of the world, based on the
multicrystalline wafers.

On the horizontal axis, the average grain size of the multicrystalline silicon
absorber layer is shown.

The larger the grain size, the longer the charge carrier lifetimes and the larger
the band gap utilization and the larger the open circuit voltage will be.

On the right you see now the open circuit voltages of various solar cells, based on
monocrystalline wafers.

As monocrystalline silicon has no grain boundary, much larger open circuit
voltages can be obtained.

The question now is:
how do we make these types of silicon wafers?

How do we make monocrystalline and how do we make multicrystalline wafers?

We will discuss that in the next block.

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