Recombination reduction at the c-Si/RCA oxide interface through Ar-H<sub>2</sub> plasma treatment

Journal article (2017)

Authors

Kees Landheer Debye Institute
Paula Bronsveld ECN Solar Energy
Ioannis Poulios Debye Institute
F.D. Tichelaar QN/Zandbergen Lab
Monja Kaiser Philips Innovation Services
Ruud E I Schropp Eindhoven University of Technology
Jatin K. Rath Debye Institute
Research Group
QN/Zandbergen Lab
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Published Date

28-02-2017

Language

English

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Research Group

QN/Zandbergen Lab

Abstract

An Ar‑H2 plasma treatment was applied on an ultrathin RCA oxide to create well-passivated silicon wafers with symmetric c‑Si/SiOx:H/a‑Si:H passivation layer stacks. The effective lifetime of these samples increased from 10 μs to 4 ms after annealing at 200 °C through Ar‑H2 plasma treatment of the oxide. The results indicate that the plasma treatment can modify the RCA oxide and this enables atomic hydrogen diffusion at low annealing temperature, leading to a well passivated c‑Si/SiOx:H interface. This might provide new possibilities to use wet chemical oxides in c-Si solar cells, for example as tunnel contacts.