Mechanism insight into the effect of I/P buffer layer on the performance of NIP-type hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon solar cells

Abstract

A simulation and experimental study on the effect of the buffer layer at the I/P interface on the performance of NIP-type hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) single-junction solar cells is presented. Device-quality hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) material as a buffer layer at the I/P interface obviously improves the performance of NIP-type μc-Si:H single-junction solar cells. In addition to the well-known mechanism that an a-Si:H I/P buffer layer can reduce the recombination current density at I/P interfaces, the optically and electrically calibrated simulations and supporting experimental results in this study illustrate that the performance improvement also originates from the mitigation of the electric screening effect due to the reduced defect density at the I/P interfaces, which reinforces the bulk electric field. Integrating an optimized hydrogen profiling strategy and adding a-Si:H I/P buffer layer yielded an initial efficiency of 9.20% for μc-Si:H single-junction solar cells with an active area of 0.27 cm2. This study may provide new ideas of further improving the performance of NIP-type μc-Si:H single-junction solar cells by mitigating the electric screening effect.