Abstract
Polycrystalline silicon is the dominant material in solar cells and plays an important role in photovoltaic industry. It is important for not only the conventional production of silicon ingots but also the direct growth of silicon wafers to control crystallization for obtaining the desired polycrystalline silicon. To the best of our knowledge, few studies have systematically reported about the effects of crystalline planes on the solidification behavior of liquid silicon and the analysis of the microstructural features of the polysilicon structure. In this study, molecular dynamics simulations were employed to investigate the solidification and microstructure evolution of polysilicon, with focus on the effects of the seed distribution and cooling rate on the growth of polycrystalline silicon. The (110), (111), and (112) planes were extruded by the (100) plane and formed the inclusion shape. The crystallization of silicon consisted of diamond-type structures is relatively high at a low cooling rate. The simulations provide substantial information regarding microstructures and serve as guidance for the growth of polycrystalline silicon.
Highlights
Polycrystalline silicon is the dominant material in solar cells and is used as a raw material by the solar photovoltaic and electronics industry
As compared with the conventional methods for growing silicon ingots, the horizontal ribbon growth and string ribbon growth methods are of significance in the photovoltaic industry
Molecular dynamic simulations of the solid-liquid interface were performed with a time step of 2 × 10-3 ps.[12]
Summary
The Stillinger–Weber (SW) potential, which describes the interaction of silicon atoms, is known to provide reasonable results for the properties of crystalline and liquid silicon.[8,9,10,11] First, we simulate the growth process of different crystal planes and observed that the growth of the (100) plane was more rapid than that of the (110), (111), and (112) planes. Based on this simulation result, we investigate the effects of seeds and the cooling rate on the microstructures of grown polycrystalline silicon. Our simulations provide substantial information regarding microstructures and serve as guidance for the growth of polycrystalline silicon
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