Natural hydrogen treatment effect during formation of double amorphous silicon-carbide p layer structures producing high-efficiency pin-type amorphous silicon solar cells -: art. no. 033506

We proposed a double p-type amorphous silicon-carbide (p-a-SiC : H) layer structure to improve the p/i interface of pin-type amorphous silicon based solar cells. We found a natural hydrogen treatment involving an etch of the defective undiluted p-a-SiC:H window layer before the hydrogen-diluted p-a-SiC:H buffer layer deposition and an improvement of the order in the window layer. It is beneficial to increase overall solar cell parameters by successfully reducing recombination at the p/i interface. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.