Amorphous-crystalline silicon heterojunction: Theoretical evaluation of the current terms

Abstract

In this paper, the current mechanisms and the theoretical performance as solar cell of an amorphous-crystalline silicon heterojunction are evaluated and their dependence with the amorphous silicon doping level, the interface state density, the amorphous silicon density of gap states and the amorphous silicon gap is studied. These current terms are compared among them and with the current terms of a crystalline silicon homojunction of identical doping levels. We have found that the dominant dark current mechanism is multitunnelling across localized states of the amorphous silicon gap.