Thin Solid Films 583 (2015) 2533

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Thin Solid Films

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tsf

Silicon nitride and intrinsic amorphous silicon double antireection

coatings for thin-lm solar cells on foreign substrates
Da Li a,, Thomas Kunz a, Nadine Wolf b, Jan Philipp Liebig c, Stephan Wittmann a, Taimoor Ahmad a,
Maik T. Hessmann a, Richard Auer a, Mathias Gken c, Christoph J. Brabec a,d
a

Bavarian Center for Applied Energy Research (ZAE Bayern), Division: Photovoltaics and Thermosensoric, Haberstr. 2a, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Bavarian Center for Applied Energy Research (ZAE Bayern), Division: Energy Efciency, Am Galgenberg 87, 97074 Wuerzburg, Germany
Materials Science and Engineering, Institute I, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Martensstr. 5, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
d
Institute of Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Martensstr. 7, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
b
c

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 9 October 2014
Received in revised form 17 February 2015
Accepted 20 March 2015
Available online 28 March 2015
Keywords:
Amorphous silicon
Crystalline silicon thin lm
Double layer antireection coating
Surface passivation
Graphite substrate
Focus ion beam
Scanning transmission electron microscopy

a b s t r a c t
Hydrogenated intrinsic amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) was investigated as a surface passivation method for crystalline silicon thin lm solar cells on graphite substrates. The results of the experiments, including quantum efciency and current densityvoltage measurements, show improvements in cell performance. This improvement is
due to surface passivation by an a-Si:H(i) layer, which increases the open circuit voltage and the ll factor. In
comparison with our previous work, we have achieved an increase of 0.6% absolute cell efciency for a 40 m
thick 4 cm2 aperture area on the graphite substrate. The optical properties of the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stack were studied using spectroscopic ellipsometer techniques. Scanning transmission electron microscopy inside a scanning
electron microscope was applied to characterize the cross section of the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stack using focus ion
beam preparation.
2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Graphite is a high thermal stability material and available at high
purity. Consequently, several cell concepts have been developed for
solar cells on graphite substrates, i.e., zone melting recrystallization
(ZMR) [1,2], laser edge isolation (LEI) [3], hydrogen passivation [4]
and laser single side contact (LSSC) [5]. In our previous work, we reported our 10.2% cell efciency for a 40 m thick and 4 cm2 aperture area on
graphite substrate [5].
In order to improve the thin lm cell concept further, the surface recombination must be suppressed using a surface passivation process.
Several dielectric materials are widely applied as surface passivation
coatings, including aluminum oxide (Al2O3) [6,7], hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) [811], amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiCx:H)
[12,13], silicon nitride (SiNx) [14,15] and thermal silicon oxide (SiO2)
[1618]. When considering passivation of the sunside surface in particular, not only the passivation quality but also optical properties such as
antireection must also be taken into account [19], such as, SiNx/SiO2
[2023], SiNx/SiNx [24,25] SiNx/a-Si:H [2628] and SiOx/indium tin
oxide [29] stacks. Among these various concepts, the a-Si:H(i)/c-Si(n)
hetero-interface has a high passivation quality and can be fabricated
Corresponding author at: ZAE Bayern, Haberstr. 2a, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2015.03.051
0040-6090/ 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

at low temperature (b250 C). It is used e.g., in heterojunction with

intrinsic thin (HIT) layer cell concept [3032].
In this paper, we combine our cell concept on graphite substrates
with surface passivation, using an SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stack on a phosphordoped c-Si(n+) emitter. The a-Si:H(i) passivation has the advantages
of high surface passivation quality and short process times at low temperature. We observed improved cell performance, i.e., an increase in
short circuit current (Jsc), open circuit voltage (Voc), ll factor (FF) and cell
efciency due to the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stack. We report a laboratory cell efciency of 10.8% on the same aperture area and the graphite substrate.
2. Experimental
2.1. Solar cell design and processing
Our cell concepts are based on high purity graphite substrates
(FP479, Schunk Kohlenstofftechnik GmbH) with a size of
10 cm 10 cm 2 mm. In order to prevent impurity diffusion from
the foreign substrate, a SiC layer was deposited as an intermediate
layer on both sides of the substrate using a hot wall chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD). Afterwards, a c-Si(p+) layer, which served as a seed
and back surface eld layer (approximately 20 m thick and with an acceptor concentration of 4 1018 cm3), was deposited on top of the SiC

26

D. Li et al. / Thin Solid Films 583 (2015) 2533

layer using convection assisted chemical vapor deposition (CoCVD). The

subsequent ZMR process yielded a large size of silicon grain. A 20 m
thick epitaxial c-Si(p) base layer was applied over the c-Si(p+) layer
and was grown by CoCVD [33]. This p-Si layer had a boron doping concentration of about 2 1016 cm3. The c-Si(n+) emitter was formed by
spin on doping of a phosphorous solution followed by rapid thermal
processing in a furnace [34]. It was essential to reduce the bulk recombination using a hydrogen passivation process, which was applied directly after the removal of the phosphorous glass [3]. The hydrogen
passivation process was carried out at a low temperature (b350 C) for
50 min with a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system (Roth & Rau, AK1000). The PECVD system has an 88 96.5 35 cm3
volume chamber containing a 42 42 cm2 heating stage.
Due to recent rapid developments in laser technique, LEI process and
LSSC formations were applied in our cell concepts. Trenches approximately 30 m deep (down into the c-Si(p+) layer) and 3 mm wide
were fabricated for contact stripes around the cells using a Nd:YVO4
laser (Ron Power Line LP20, laser = 1064 nm).
Afterwards, we simultaneously evaporated emitter contacts and the
base contacts on the front. The grid metallization was formed by electron beam evaporation of Ti, Pd and Ag (30 nm, 30 nm and 5 m thick,
respectively). Finally, a silicon nitride layer serving as a single layer antireection coating (80 nm thick, refractive index from 1.5 to 1.8) was
deposited using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD).
The PECVD system was kept at a pressure of 3.5 Pa, a work frequency
of 2.45 GHz and microwave power of 1000 W. The total thickness of

the silicon layers was approximately 40 m. It is important to note

that the samples have not been prepared in clean room conditions.
As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, we divided the samples into three batches
corresponding to the three different cell concepts. For Batch C all steps
of the process sequence described above were followed, with the exception of surface passivation, as shown in Fig. 2c.
2.2. Process sequences of a-Si:H(i) deposition
In crystalline silicon thin lm (CSiTF) (b 40 m) solar cells, the electron-hole generation is close to the surface and thus the surface recombination plays an extremely important role in the cell performance.
Therefore, in order to improve our cell concepts further, we focused
our effort on front surface passivation to reduce the surface recombination using an a-Si:H(i) layer.
As shown in Fig. 2a and b, two strategies were investigated to nd
the best surface passivation process sequence using the a-Si:H(i) layer.
As shown in Fig. 1, the samples of one strategy were named as Batch
A, and in these samples a-Si:H(i) layers were fabricated before the
laser trenching and the LEI process. Moreover, the a-Si:H(i) layer was
deposited directly after the hydrogen passivation in the same PECVD
chamber, which may have advantages for the a-Si:H(i)/c-Si(n+) interface characteristics.
The alternative strategy was to fabricate the a-Si:H(i) layers (applied
in Batch B) after the laser processing and the grid metallization. The
a-Si:H(i) and SiNx layers were formed stepwise at the same temperature

Fig. 1. Processing sequence of the cells. Three solar cell batches were prepared. Batch A was passivated by the depositing using the a-Si:H(i) layer after the hydrogen bulk passivation.
The surface passivation layer of Batch B was applied before the SiNx layer. Batch C was the reference batch without surface passivation process.

D. Li et al. / Thin Solid Films 583 (2015) 2533

27

Fig. 2. Schematic of the three different CSiTF solar cell concepts. All concepts are based on graphite substrates. The surface passivation is achieved depositing the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stack
(a) before the laser process and (b) after grid metallization process, respectively. (c) The SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stack was not applied in the reference cell concept. The layers are not to scale.

and in the same PECVD chamber, which may have advantages as for the
SiNx/a-Si:H(i) interface quality.
In addition, Fig. 2a and b indicate a small difference between Batch A
and Batch B with regard to their cell structures. The isolated edges and
the sides of Batch A were not covered by the a-Si:H(i) coating, because
they were removed by the subsequent laser process. In contrast, the
a-Si:H(i) coatings of Batch B covered the full surface area including the
laser isolated edge and the sides.
Finally, the SiNx coatings were identically deposited on the front of
all the batches, forming the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stacks in Batches A and B.
We will discuss the optical and electrical properties of the stacks in
Section 3.2.

experiments, i.e., quasi-steady-state photo-conductance and microwave detected photo-conductance decay (mwPCD), were severely
disturbed.
Therefore, we rst investigated the optical and carrier lifetime properties of the a-Si:H(i) layers on the planar FZ c-Si(p) reference wafers
(single-side polished, boron-doped, 0.5 cm resistivity and 280
15-m thick). For each parameter study in this work, we used the
small pieces, which were cut from one and the same 5-inch reference
wafer. The a-Si:H(i) coatings were prepared on the polished side of
these small pieces. The optical parameters, such as the refractive index
and the lm thickness of a-Si:H(i) were measured using the variable
angle spectroscopic ellipsometer (SE) (VASE, J. A. Woollam Co. Inc.)

2.3. Material and cell characterization

Table 1
Summary of deposition conditions used for the parameter study of a-Si:H(i), as compared
in Figs. 3 and 4. There are three parameters in the study (deposition time, gas ow ratio
and substrate temperature). For the dependence study on each parameter, the other
two parameters remain constants.

It is difcult to characterize the a-Si:H(i) coatings on the CSiTF solar

cells based on graphite substrates due to the thin a-Si:H(i) layer and the
rough and irregular shaped a-Si:H(i)/c-Si(n+) interface. Moreover, due
to the extreme difference in thickness between the substrate (2 mm)
and the active cell (40 m), it is hard to characterize the carrier lifetime
and the surface recombination velocity using the photoconductive
techniques. Furthermore, both the graphite and the SiC intermediate
layer are electrically conductive. Consequently, the signals from the

Dependence of n600 and

thickness on:

Deposition
time (s)

Gas ow ratio
(H2:SiH4)

Substrate
temperature (C)

(a) Deposition time

(b) Gas ow ratio
(c) Substrate temperature

From 20 to 140
100
100

2
From 1.4 to 10
2

350
350
From 0 to 350

28

D. Li et al. / Thin Solid Films 583 (2015) 2533

(i.e., SE-VASE) at 1 = 600 nm. The deposition conditions are listed in

Table 1. The effective carrier lifetime of a-Si:H(i) coatings show the
quality of surface passivation using the mwPCD technique with Semilab
WT2000.
For the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stacks on graphite-based solar cells, we simulated the dependence of the reectance of the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stack on
their refractive indexes and thicknesses to obtain a range of these
parameters and to optimize the stack. In addition, the optical parameters of the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stacks were characterized using the other
SE (EL X-04, DRE-Dr. Riss Ellipsometerbau GmbH, laser source 2 =
632 nm) (i.e., SE-ELX04). Subsequently, the nished cells were charac-

terized by current densityvoltage (JV) measurement and using the

Enlitech solar cell analysis system QE-R for the quantum efciency
and reectance measurements.
Finally, in order to attain sufcient resolution for the images of the
thin lm cross-sections, electron transparent lamellae were prepared
by means of a focused ion beam (FIB) lift-out technique and investigated using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM)
inside the scanning electron microscope. Both the preparation and the
imaging were conducted inside the Dual Beam FIB Helios NanoLab
600i (FEI, Hillsboro, OR, USA) equipped with a Schottky eld emitter
[35,36].

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Surface passivation using a-Si:H(i)
Corresponding to the deposition conditions in Table 1, Fig. 3 gives the measured dependence of the effective carrier lifetime on the gas ow ratio
of the precursors (H2:SiH4) and the substrate temperature (Tsub), whereby every a-Si:H(i) layer was deposited within 100 s. The result demonstrates
that the samples have been passivated. The best effective carrier lifetime is close to 20 s, when the ow ratio is in the range of 1 to 5 and Tsub is
between 250 C and 350 C, as shown (red dash rectangles) in Fig. 3. Otherwise, for the ow ratio is excess to 3.5 and the Tsub is lower than
150 C, the effective carrier lifetime is smaller than 9 s or even 5 s, which indicated that those samples were not surface passivated.
Fig. 4 shows the measured dependence of the reective index n600 (1 = 600 nm) of the a-Si:H(i) layer on the layer thickness, the gas ow ratio
and the substrate temperature using the SE-VASE. The dependence of n600 Layer thickness indicates that the layer thickness and the refractive index
of an a-Si:H(i) layer are independent. The dependence of n600 Flow ratio shows that for a ow ratio between 1.4 and 4, the refractive index decreases
sharply and the deposition rate hardly changes, whereas at a ow ratio in excess to 4, the refractive index and the deposition rate slowly decrease. The
results demonstrate that the refractive index and the gas ow ratio have a high dependence. A higher gas ow ratio has a lower refractive index. The
samples were prepared for the n600 Tsub dependence with a ow ratio = 2 and tdep = 100 s. The dependence shows that for a Tsub between 0 C and
350 C, the refractive index hardly increases and the deposition rate hardly decreases. From these experiments we derived a thickness of 15 to 20 nm
and a refractive index of approximately 2.2 for the a-Si:H(i) layers on the crystalline thin lm cells on graphite substrates (ow ratio = 2, Tsub =
250 C and tdep = 15 s.).
3.2. Optical properties of the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stack
When the a-Si:H(i) is used as a surface passivation layer on the sunward side of silicon solar cells, the optical performance of the SiNx/a-Si:H(i)
stack as a double layer antireection coating must be taken into account. Here, we simulated the best range of the reectivity of the SiNx/a-Si:H(i)
stack using the formulas [37]. Are dened as following:
r1

n0 n1
;
n0 n1

r2

n1 n2
;
n1 n2

r3

n2 n3
;
n2 n3

2n1 t 1
;

2n2 t 2
;

where n0 is the refractive index of air, equal to 1. r1, r2 and r3 are the amplitude reectances at the interface of airrst coating, rst coatingsecond
coating and second coatingsilicon, respectively. 1 and 2 are the phase thicknesses. is the wavelength of the incident radiation. The SiNx layer
has a refractive index n1 and a thickness t1. The a-Si:H(i) layer has refractive index n2 and thickness t2. The refractive index of the c-Si(n+) is
3.87 at 2 = 632 nm [38]. Hence, the reectivity of the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stack is given by:




r 21 r 22 r 23 r 21 r 22 r 23 2r1 r 2 1 r 23 cos21 2r 2 r 3 1 r 21 cos22 2r 1 r 3 cos21 2 2r 1 r 22 r 3 cos21 2




R
:
1 r 21 r 22 r 22 r23 r 21 r 23 2r1 r 2 1 r 23 cos21 2r2 r 3 1 r 21 cos22 2r 1 r 3 cos21 2 2r 1 r 22 r 3 cos21 2

We fabricated the SiNx layer at a low temperature (250 C) and the gas ow ratio (NH3:SiH4) was approximately 0.85. The refractive index of SiNx
was measured in the range from 1.5 to 1.8 using SE-ELX04 at 2 = 632 nm.

D. Li et al. / Thin Solid Films 583 (2015) 2533

29

Fig. 3. Measured dependence of the effective carrier lifetime of a-Si:H(i) layers on planar FZ c-Si(p) wafers as a function of the gas ow ratio and the substrate temperature.

Fig. 4. Measured dependence of the refractive index and the layer thickness at 600 nm of a-Si:H(i) layers on planar FZ c-Si(p) wafers as a function of (a) the deposition time, (b) the gas ow
ratio and (c) the substrate temperature.

30

D. Li et al. / Thin Solid Films 583 (2015) 2533

Fig. 5. Calculated dependence of the reectance of SiNx/a-Si(i) stacks as a function of (a) the layer thickness (t1, t2) when n1 = 1.7 nm and n2 = 2.2 nm and (b) the refractive index (n1, n2)
when t1 = 90 nm and t2 = 20 nm.

Fig. 5a shows the contours of the reectance (R632) for the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stack as a function of their thicknesses (t1, t2) at 2 = 632 nm, where
n1 = 1.7 and n2 = 2.2. Fig. 5b shows the contours of the reectance for the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stack as a function of their refractive indexes (n1, n2),
where t1 is 90 nm and t2 is 20 nm. Both contours show the R632 of the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stack, which has low values (b3.5%) if:
1:6 b n1 SiNx b 1:7;
2:1 b n2 aSi : Hi b 2:3;
75 nm b t 1 SiNx b 90 nm;
10 nm b t 2 aSi : Hi b 30 nm;
whereby the reectance from the metal contacts was not taken into account in the simulation.
3.3. FIB-STEM
A cell (A-18) from Batch A was chosen for the FIB-STEM micrographs. We took a small part from the surface of Cell A-18 and prepared it into a
65-nm thick FIB lamella. Fig. 6 shows the cross section of A-18 after completed FIB preparation. As shown in Fig. 6, the platinum (Pt) protective
layer lies at the top with the approximately 90 nm SiNx layer beneath. Beneath that lies the approximately 20-nm thick a-Si:H(i) layer and the
c-Si layer at the bottom. We also characterized A-18 using the SE-ELX04 as a comparison. We obtained the optical parameters of A-18 (t1 =
84.7 nm, t2 = 19.0 nm, n1 = 1.72 and n2 = 2.20). Thus the measured parameters using the FIB-STEM are in agreement with the parameters using
the SE.
Fig. 7 shows the measured R632 of A-18 is approximately 6.1%. As a comparison, the R632 of the cells A-26 and B-26 have blue shifts, which is predominately due to a thinner SiNx layer or a thinner a-Si:H(i) layer. Both A-26 and B-26 seemed promising candidates for better cell performance than
A-18, since the relative wavelengths of their minimum reectances are close to the peak intensity of the solar spectrum. However, the result demonstrates that, even in the same deposition condition, the minimum reectances of this SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stack were at different wavelengths. The

Fig. 6. STEM picture of the cross section of the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stack of a nished solar cell on graphite substrate.

D. Li et al. / Thin Solid Films 583 (2015) 2533

31

Fig. 7. Reectance spectra of four typical cells on graphite substrates. Cell A-18 was used for the STEM micrograph. Cell A-26, B-26 and C-05 are the highest efciency cells in each batch,
respectively.

Fig. 8. Current density versus voltage curves of the highest efciency cell of the three batches under illumination.

SiNx/a-Si:H(i) layers of these batches were not uniform. This was mainly due to the inhomogeneous ambient in the large PECVD chamber and the
rough surfaces of the cells.
3.4. JV measurement
Table 2 shows the performance of all batches with respect to parallel resistance (Rp), series resistance (Rs), Jsc, Voc, FF and cell efciency. A-18 was
used to characterize the cross section of the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stack. The cells A-26, B-26 and C-05 had the highest cell efciencies in each batch, respectively. In addition, Fig. 8 shows the JV curves of these three cells. Compared to C-05, both A-26 and B-26 have approximately 20 mV increased Voc,
which is due to the passivated surfaces of A-26 and B-26 using a-Si:H(i) layers.
The a-Si:H(i) layer was fabricated for Batch A before the metallization process. Table 2 shows that Batch A has the lowest average value in Rp
among the three batches due to the leak current at the edges, where the a-Si:H(i) layer was not covered or removed by the following laser process.
In Batch B, the a-Si:H(i) layer covered the entire surface of the solar cells. As expected in the process sequence designs and described in Section 2.2,
Batch B had the highest average values in Jsc, Voc, FF and cell efciency among the three batches, which indicated the a-Si:H(i) layers in Batch B have
Table 2
Cell parameters. Parallel resistance (Rp), series resistance (Rs), open circuit voltage (Voc), current density (Jsc), ll factor (FF) and efciency ().
Batch

B
C

Best cell A-26

Average
A-18
Best cell B-26
Average
Best cell C-05
Average

Rp

Rs

Voc

Jsc

FF

Efciency

(m2)

(cm2)

(mV)

(mA/cm2)

(%)

(%)

1.04
1.02
0.76
2.45
1.93
3.09
1.95

0.679
0.843
0.950
1.085
0.943
0.883
0.962

521
492
506
525
502
499
483

29.1
25.7
26.0
29.9
26.4
29.8
26.2

71.4
65.9
65.4
68.5
66.6
67.2
65.8

10.82
8.36
8.64
10.77
8.84
9.99
8.37

The extreme values are highlighted in bold.

Notes

With a-Si:H(i)

With a-Si:H(i)
Without a-Si:H(i)

32

D. Li et al. / Thin Solid Films 583 (2015) 2533

Fig. 9. Measured average internal quantum efciencies with error bars of Batches A, B and C. The error bars as drawn as lled areas.

better cell performance than in Batch A. Moreover, we observed good reproducibility of the sequence of Batch B, which has higher average cell
efciency. The slightly higher Rs could be due to the contact resistance of the interfaces of metal grida-Si:H(i) layer and metal gridemitter.
3.5. Quantum efciency
To study the effect of the surface passivation using the a-Si:H(i) layers, the internal quantum efciency (IQE) in a range of 350 nm b b 600 nm
was measured. The average IQE and the error bars for Batches A, B and C are plotted in Fig. 9. It is evident that the samples with a-Si:H(i) layers
(Batches A and B) have higher values than the samples without a-Si:H(i) layers (Batch C), which is predominately due to lower surface recombination.
4. Conclusions

References

In order to develop the cell concept on graphite substrates, we

focused our research on surface passivation using a SiNx/a-Si:H(i)
stack. A primary study on FZ c-Si wafers was conducted to nd optimized process parameters and best thickness values for low optical
losses. Moreover, the optimized SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stacks were used to
fabricate crystalline silicon thin lm solar cells on graphite substrates.
We then measured the precise thickness of the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stacks
using the FIB-STEM technique, and the result was in good agreement
with the optical properties calculated in the study.
The photoconductive techniques are limited in our cell concepts as
the SiC layer and the graphite substrate are conductive. Consequently,
the quantum efciency measurement was applied and this demonstrated that the a-Si:H(i) layer reduced the surface recombination and
improved the current collection at short wavelengths.
As shown in the JV measurement, we have achieved the highest cell
efciency of 10.8% on an aperture area of 4 cm2 on the graphite
substrate. Meanwhile, we also observed that the best a-Si:H(i) layer deposition sequence was fabricated stepwise after the grid metallization.
In comparison with the 25.6% cell efciency HIT solar cell, which has
the 10-nm thick a-Si:H(i) layer and the low surface recombination velocity of approximately 1.5 cm/s [39], there is still space for us to develop the process of our cell concept further and to prepare a homogeneous
and high-quality a-Si:H(i) layer in a larger aperture area. For the same
purpose, the SiNx/a-Si:H(i) stacks must also be precisely fabricated to
obtain lowest reectance and better surface passivation.

[1] T. Kieliba, (Ph.D. Thesis) http://d-nb.info/994900880/342006 (University of

Konstanz, available at).
[2] T. Kunz, M.T. Hessmann, R. Auer, A. Bochmann, S. Christiansen, C.J. Brabec, Grain
structure of thin-lm silicon by zone melting recrystallization on SiC base layer, J.
Cryst. Growth 357 (2012) 20.
[3] T. Kunz, V. Gazuz, M.T. Hessmann, N. Gawehns, I. Burkert, C.J. Brabec, Laser structuring
of crystalline silicon thin-lm solar cells on opaque foreign substrates, Sol. Energy
Mater. Sol. Cells 95 (2011) 2454.
[4] A.M. Barnett, R.B. Hall, J.A. Rand, C.L. Kendall, D.H. Ford, Thin lm polycrystalline
silicon solar cells, Sol. Energy Mater. 23 (1991) 164.
[5] D. Li, S. Wittmann, T. Kunz, T. Ahmad, N. Gawehns, M.T. Hessmann, R. Auer, C.J.
Brabec, Thin lm silicon solar cell on graphite substrate with laser single side
contact, Proc. 29th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition,
Amsterdam, Holland 2014, p. 1610.
[6] B. Hoex, S.B.S. Heil, E. Langereis, M.C.M. van de Sanden, W.M.M. Kessels, Ultralow
surface recombination of c-Si substrates passivated by plasma-assisted atomic
layer deposited Al2O3, Appl. Phys. Lett. 89 (2006) 042112.
[7] A. Richter, J. Benick, M. Hermle, S.W. Glunz, Reaction kinetics during the thermal
activation of the silicon surface passivation with atomic layer deposited Al2O3,
Appl. Phys. Lett. 104 (2014) 061606.
[8] S. Dauwe, J. Schmidt, R. Hezel, Very low surface recombination velocities on p- and
n-type silicon wafers passivated with hydrogenated amorphous silicon lms, Proc.
29th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, New Orleans, USA 2002, p. 1246.
[9] S. Gloger, N. Brinkmann, B. Terheiden, Low surface recombination velocity using
amorphous silicon on industrial-type cleaned surfaces, Energy Procedia 8 (2011)
666.
[10] J.-W.A. Schttauf, K.H.M. van der Werf, I.M. Kielen, W.G.J.H.M. van Sark, J.K. Rath,
R.E.I. Schropp, Excellent crystalline silicon surface passivation by amorphous silicon
irrespective of the technique used for chemical vapor deposition, Appl. Phys. Lett. 98
(2011) 153514.
[11] M. Mews, T.F. Schulze, N. Mingirulli, L. Korte, Hydrogen plasma treatments for
passivation of amorphous-crystalline silicon-heterojunctions on surfaces promoting
epitaxy, Appl. Phys. Lett. 102 (2013) 122106.
[12] I. Martn, M. Vetter, A. Orpella, J. Puigdollers, A. Cuevas, R. Alcubilla, Surface
passivation of p-type crystalline Si by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposited
amorphous SiCx:H lms, Appl. Phys. Lett. 79 (2001) 2199.
[13] C. Ehling, J.H. Werner, M.B. Schubert, a-SiC:H passivation for crystalline silicon solar
cells, Phys. Status Solidi C 7 (2010) 1016.
[14] A.G. Aberle, Overview on SiN surface passivation of crystalline silicon solar cells, Sol.
Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 65 (2001) 239.
[15] S. Xiao, S. Xu, High-efciency silicon solar cellsmaterials and devices physics, Crit.
Rev. Solid State 39 (2014) 277.
[16] Z. Chen, P. Sana, J. Salami, A. Rohatgi, A novel and effective PECVD SiO2/SiN
antireection coating for Si solar cells, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 40 (1993) 1161.
[17] A.G. Aberle, Surface passivation of crystalline silicon solar cells: a review, Prog.
Photovoltaics 8 (2000) 473.

Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge funding by the German Federal
Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear safety
(BMU) under contract no. 0325031B. We thank Stefan Janz, from
Fraunhofer ISE Freiburg, for the recrystallization of the silicon layers.
We also thank Karsten Nielsen, Da Ning and Tobias Fey, from the
Institute of Glass and Ceramics, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg,
for sharing their knowledge of the spectroscope ellipsometer.

D. Li et al. / Thin Solid Films 583 (2015) 2533

[18] M.J. Kerr, A. Cuevas, Very low bulk and surface recombination in oxidized silicon
wafers, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 17 (2002) 35.
[19] J. Zhao, M.A. Green, Optimized antireection coatings for high-efciency silicon
solar cells, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 38 (1991) 1925.
[20] A. Rohatgi, Z. Chen, P. Doshi, T. Pham, D. Ruby, High-efciency silicon solar cells by
rapid thermal processing, Appl. Phys. Lett. 65 (1994) 2087.
[21] J. Schmidt, M. Kerr, A. Cuevas, Surface passivation of silicon solar cells using plasmaenhanced chemical-vapour-deposited SiN lms and thin thermal SiO2/plasma SiN
stacks, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 16 (2001) 164.
[22] D.N. Wright, E.S. Marstein, A. Holt, Double layer anti-reective coatings for silicon
solar cells, Proc. 31st IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference 2005, p. 1237.
[23] J. Kim, J. Park, J. Hong, S. Choi, G. Kang, G. Yu, N. Kim, H.-e. Song, Double antireection coating layer with silicon nitride and silicon oxide for crystalline silicon solar
cell, J. Electroceram. 30 (2013) 41.
[24] B. Kumar, T. Baskara Pandian, E. Sreekiran, S. Narayanan, Benet of dual layer silicon
nitride anti-reection coating, Proc. 31st IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference
2005, p. 1205.
[25] J. Ko, D. Gong, K. Pillai, K.-S. Lee, M. Ju, P. Choi, K.-R. Kim, J. Yi, B. Choi, Double layer
SiNx:H lms for passivation and anti-reection coating of c-Si solar cells, Thin Solid
Films 519 (2011) 6887.
[26] H. Plagwitz, Y. Takahashi, B. Terheiden, R. Brendel, Amorphous Si/SiN double layers:
A lowtemperature passivation method for diffused phosphorus as well as boron
emitters, in: J. Poortmans, H. Ossenbrink, E. Dunlop, P. Helm (Eds.), Proc. 21st
European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition, Dresden,
Germany, 2006, WIP-Renewable Energies 2006, p. 688.
[27] M. Tucci, L. Serenelli, Metastability of SiNx/a-Si:H crystalline silicon surface passivation
for PV application, Thin Solid Films 516 (2008) 6939.
[28] A. Focsa, A. Slaoui, H. Chari, J.P. Stoquert, S. Roques, Surface passivation at low
temperature of p- and n-type silicon wafers using a double layer a-Si:H/SiNx:H,
Mater. Sci. Eng. B Adv. 159160 (2009) 242.
[29] D. Zhang, I.A. Digdaya, R. Santbergen, R.A.C.M.M. van Swaaij, P. Bronsveld, M. Zeman,
J.A.M. van Roosmalen, A.W. Weeber, Design and fabrication of a SiOx/ITO double-

[30]

[31]

[32]
[33]

[34]

[35]
[36]
[37]

[38]
[39]

33

layer anti-reective coating for heterojunction silicon solar cells, Sol. Energy
Mater. Sol. Cells 117 (2013) 132.
M. Taguchi, K. Kawamoto, S. Tsuge, T. Baba, H. Sakata, M. Morizane, K. Uchihashi, N.
Nakamura, S. Kiyama, O. Oota, HITTM cellshigh-efciency crystalline Si cells with
novel structure, Prog. Photovoltaics 8 (2000) 503.
M. Taguchi, A. Yano, S. Tohoda, K. Matsuyama, Y. Nakamura, T. Nishiwaki, K. Fujita,
E. Maruyama, 24.7% record efciency HIT solar cell on thin silicon wafer, IEEE J.
Photovolt. 4 (2014) 96.
S. De Wolf, A. Descoeudres, Z.C. Holman, C. Ballif, High-efciency silicon
heterojunction solar cells: a review, Green 2 (2012) 7.
M. Grosch, I. Burkert, T. Kunz, V. Gazuz, N. Gawehns, M. Schefer, R. Auer, Electrical
characterization of silicon layers grown by convection-assisted chemical vapour
deposition (CoCVD), Record of the IEEE 4th World Conference on Photovoltaic
Energy Conversion 2006, p. 1661.
V. Gazuz, M. Muehlbauer, M. Schefer, R. Weissmann, R. Auer, Rapid thermal
processing of solar cells by Si wafer bonding on low cost substrates, Proc. 21st
European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition, Dresden, Germany
2006, p. 851.
R.M. Langford, C. Clinton, In situ lift-out using a FIBSEM system, Micron 35 (2004)
607.
M. Schaffer, B. Schaffer, Q. Ramasse, Sample preparation for atomic-resolution STEM
at low voltages by FIB, Ultramicroscopy 114 (2012) 62.
E.Y. Wang, F.T.S. Yu, V.L. Sims, E.W. Brandhorst, J.D. Broder, Optimum design of antireection coating for silicon solar cells, Proc. 10th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists
Conference, Palo Alto, USA 1973, p. 168.
M.A. Green, Self-consistent optical parameters of intrinsic silicon at 300 K including
temperature coefcients, Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells 92 (2008) 1305.
K. Masuko, M. Shigematsu, T. Hashiguchi, D. Fujishima, M. Kai, N. Yoshimura, T.
Yamaguchi, Y. Ichihashi, T. Mishima, N. Matsubara, T. Yamanishi, T. Takahama, M.
Taguchi, E. Maruyama, S. Okamoto, Achievement of more than 25% conversion
efciency with crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cell, IEEE J. Photovolt. 4
(2014) 1433.