Journal article
Efficient silicon solar cells with dopant-free asymmetric heterocontacts
J Bullock, M Hettick, J Geissbühler, AJ Ong, T Allen, CM Sutter-Fella, T Chen, H Ota, EW Schaler, S De Wolf, C Ballif, A Cuevas, A Javey
Nature Energy | NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP | Published : 2016
Abstract
A salient characteristic of solar cells is their ability to subject photo-generated electrons and holes to pathways of asymmetrical conductivity—‘assisting’ them towards their respective contacts. All commercially available crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells achieve this by making use of doping in either near-surface regions or overlying silicon-based films. Despite being commonplace, this approach is hindered by several optoelectronic losses and technological limitations specific to doped silicon. A progressive approach to circumvent these issues involves the replacement of doped-silicon contacts with alternative materials which can also form ‘carrier-selective’ interfaces on c-Si. Here..
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Awarded by U.S. Department of Energy
Funding Acknowledgements
We would like to thank P. Frischmann for his assistance with I-V measurements and A. Fell for his suggestions regarding the simulations. Device design, fabrication and characterization were funded by the Bay Area Photovoltaics Consortium (BAPVC). Materials characterization was supported by the Electronic Materials Programs, funded by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Material Sciences and Engineering Division of the US Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. XPS characterization was performed at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, supported through the Office of Science of the US Department of Energy under Award Number DE-SC0004993. Work at the Molecular Foundry was supported by the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the US Department of Energy (Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231). Work at EPFL was supported by the Office federal de l' energie (OFEN). Work at the ANU was supported by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). The authors would like to thank the CSEM PV-center for wafer preparation and device metallization.