Electron-beam crystallized large grained silicon solar cell on glass substrate

Thin film hetero-emitter solar cells with large-grained poly-silicon absorbers of around 10 mu m thickness have been prepared on glass. The basis of the cell concept is electron-beam-crystallization of an amorphous or nanocrystalline silicon layer deposited onto a SiC:B layer. The SiC:B layer covers a commercially well available glass substrate, serving as diffusion barrier, contact layer and dopand source. For silicon absorber deposition a low pressure chemical vapour deposition was used. The successively applied e-beam crystallization process creates poly-silicon layers with grain sizes up to 1 x 10mm(2) with low defect densities. The high electronic quality of the absorber is reflected in open circuit voltages as high as 545 mV, which are realized making use of the well-developed a-Si: H hetero-emitter technology. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.