Combined microcrystal and amorphous silicon cells

Abstract

Solar cells have been constructed by depositing a microcrystalline p-silicon layer on an amorphous i-n structure. Here p and n denote the type of dopant and i the intrinsic. The silicon layers are formed by electron beam evaporation and doped through the coevaporation of boron for p type and antimony for n type. After hydrogenation by plasma annealing, solar cells are obtained with an open circuit voltage of 540 mV and short circuit current of 5 mA/cm2 under AMl simulated light. The fill factor is 46%.