Effect of nickel doping on the spectral sensitivity of silicon solar cells

Abstract

In the modern industrial production of solar cells (SC), there is a growing trend to utilize “solar silicon” as the base material due to its cost-effectiveness. However, solar silicon possesses a drawback - it has a shorter lifetime of minority charge carriers (MCC), making it challenging to achieve high efficiency in solar cells. To address this limitation and improve the efficiency of solar cells based on “solar silicon,” two key objectives need to be met. Firstly, it is essential to increase the lifetime of photogenerated charge carriers. Secondly, there is a need to minimize both optical and electrical energy losses. To achieve an increase in the lifetime of minority charge carriers in SCs, a process called gettering can be employed. This process involves utilizing clusters of nickel atoms to trap uncontrolled impurity atoms. The paper presents the results of a study on the additional doping of silicon solar cells with nickel atoms, for factors affecting the long-wave and short-wave efficiency. Nickel doping has been shown to increase the efficiency of solar cells. It is determined that in the visible region of the spectrum the spectral sensitivity of a silicon solar cell doped with nickel is higher up to 25÷35% due to a decrease in surface recombination. Technological recommendations for nickel doping of single-crystal silicon solar cells are proposed to be combined without significant changes with the standard technological process for manufacturing solar cells.