Abstract
Hydrogenated nanocrystalline Silicon thin films prepared by the very high frequency chemical vapor deposition technique (VHF-CVD) on stainless steel (SST) substrates are used to design Schottky point contact barriers for the purpose of solar energy conversion and passive electronic component applications. In this process, the contact performance between SST and M (M = Ag, Au, and Ni) and between Ag, Au, and Ni electrodes was characterized by means of current-voltage, capacitance-voltage, and light intensity dependence of short circuit (Isc) current and open circuit voltage (Voc) of the contacts. Particularly, the devices ideality factors, barrier heights were evaluated by the Schottky method and compared to the Cheung's. Best Schottky device performance with lowest ideality factor suitable for electronic applications was observed in the SST/nc-Si:H/Ag structure. This device reflects a Voc of 229 mV with an Isc of 1.6 mA/cm2 under an illumination intensity of ~40 klux. On the other hand, the highest Isc being 9.0 mA/cm2 and the Voc of 53.1 mV were observed for Ni/nc-Si:H/Au structure. As these voltages represent the maximum biasing voltage for some of the designed devices, the SST/nc-Si:H/M and M/nc-Si:H/M can be regarded as multifunctional self-energy that provided electronic devices suitable for active or passive applications.
Highlights
Nanoscale crystalline silicon particles embedded in amorphous silica, where the nanoscale particles play a main role, have attracted the interest of researchers due to their applicability in electronics as thin film transistors [1]
Efficient coreshell transparent conductive oxide (TCO)/a-Si/Si nanowires (SiNWs) heterojunction solar cells were fabricated on SiNW arrays prepared by metal-assisted wet chemical etching of an n-type silicon wafer [8]
Rough estimate of the volume ratio of these phases is about 60–80% of the total volume which is consistent with the Raman spectroscopy measurements [10, 11]
Summary
Nanoscale crystalline silicon particles embedded in amorphous silica, where the nanoscale particles play a main role, have attracted the interest of researchers due to their applicability in electronics as thin film transistors [1]. The hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon layers are known to be highly influenced by the type of substrate they grow on They have been grown on GaAs wafer substrates [6]. A series of nc-Si:H films have been deposited on glass substrates at different silicate concentrations and different substrate temperatures by using the traditional radio frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RF-PECVD) technique with an excitation frequency of 13.56 MHz [7] These films which grow on glass substrate at low temperature were characterized by average grain size, crystalline nature, and dark electrical conductivity data obtained from the Raman and electrical conductivity spectroscopy, respectively. These parameters are reported to be highly influenced by the substrate conditions. The current voltage characteristics between combinations of these metals will be investigated in detail; some of these contacts solar cell parameters will be reported
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