Fabrication of silicon thin films with defects below detection limit of electron spin resonance for solar cells by high-speed zone-melting crystallization of amorphous silicon

Abstract

Silicon (Si) thin films with very-low defect density for solar cells were fabricated by using high-speed (0.7–4.5 mm/s) zone-melting crystallization (ZMC) of amorphous-silicon (a-Si) thin films, resulting in films that had defects below the detection limit of electron spin resonance (ESR). In this letter, poly-crystalline silicon (poly-Si) films for zone-melting recrystallization (ZMR) and a-Si films for ZMC were each sandwiched between two SiO2 films. The Si films were 0.3–2.0 μm thick, the top SiO2 films were 0.35–1.5 μm thick, and the bottom SiO2 films were 0.18–1.2 μm thick. The a-Si ZMC films had higher crystal quality than did the poly-Si ZMR films. Over 90% of the grains in the a-Si ZMC films had preferred (100) orientation when the films were formed at scan speeds 0.7–4.5 mm/s. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that neither distinct grain boundaries nor defects were visible in the a-Si ZMC films within the 9-μm-diam observation field. The a-Si ZMC films fabricated from the a-Si films with the thickness smaller than 1 μm had no voids. Such a low defect density indicates that silicon thin-film solar cells with high efficiency can be fabricated by using such very-low defect density silicon thin films.