Correlation between film and cell properties for DC plasma deposited amorphous silicon

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe have carried out measurements to try to correlate amorphous silicon film properties with companion solar cell device performance. The dc plasma deposited intrinsic films were prepared with various hydrogen dilution levels, and increasing power levels to increase growth rate. The electronic properties were determined using admittance spectroscopy and drive-level capacitance profiling (DLCP) techniques as well as transient photocapacitance and photocurrent spectroscopy. Cell and film performance were explored in both as-grown and light-soaked states. We observed that, although cell performance decreased systematiclly with increasing growth rate, it depended on factors other than the deep defect density in the matched films. On the other hand, we did observe that increases in defect density caused by the light-induced degradation led to fairly predictable decreases in the cell fill factors.