Fabrication and characterization of SnO 2:F/n-Si(poly) solar cells prepared by chemical vapour deposition

Abstract

SnO 2:F/n-Si(poly) solar cells prepared by a low temperature chemical vapour deposition process exhibit good photovoltaic properties. A thin insulating layer on Si improves the open-circuit voltage (V oc ) and an adherent back layer of Ni, deposited by electroplating, forms a good ohmic back contact. The dark current vs. voltage characteristics reveal that the dominant transport mechanism is multistep tunnelling, and the (capacitance) −2 vs. voltage curve shows that the junction is abrupt. The best cell generates an open-circuit voltage of 0.505 V, a short-circuit current density (active area) of 240 A m −2, a fill factor of 0.61 and an efficiency of 9.2% under 800 W m −2 insolation using an AM 1 filter in a solar simulator. In addition, the relative spectral response is high over a wide range of wavelengths, and in the higher energy region it is better than that of a p-n homojunction silicon solar cell.