Rear-Sided Passivation by SiNx:H Dielectric Layer for Improved Si/PEDOT:PSS Hybrid Heterojunction Solar Cells.

Yiling Sun,Yong Xiang,Zhiqin Ying,Xi Yang,Pingqi Gao,Jichun Ye,Jian He,Suqiong Zhou

doi:10.1186/s11671-016-1505-7

Abstract

Silicon/organic hybrid solar cells have recently attracted great attention because they combine the advantages of silicon (Si) and the organic cells. In this study, we added a patterned passivation layer of silicon nitride (SiNx:H) onto the rear surface of the Si substrate in a Si/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) hybrid solar cell, enabling an improvement of 0.6 % in the power conversion efficiency (PCE). The addition of the SiNx:H layer boosted the open circuit voltage (Voc) from 0.523 to 0.557 V, suggesting the well-passivation property of the patterned SiNx:H thin layer that was created by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and lithography processes. The passivation properties that stemmed from front PEDOT:PSS, rear-SiNx:H, front PEDOT:PSS/rear-SiNx:H, etc. are thoroughly investigated, in consideration of the process-related variations.

Highlights

Over the past several decades, crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells have dominated the commercial solar cell market due to multiple factors, such as high power conversion efficiency (PCE) [1], abundance of raw materials, free of toxicological issues, and well-established processing techniques. This type of solar cells suffers from drawbacks such expensive processing and large material consumption due to high-temperature treatment and thick substrate required
Organic photovoltaics emerge as a promising technology in the solar energy field, thanks to simple processing and low material consumption [2,3,4]
It was observed that performing etching using hydrofluoric acid (HF) with a concentration of 0.25 % for 30 s produced optimal passivation and the micron-scale channels between the hexagons could offer enough depth to width ratio for thermal-evaporating electrode materials

Summary

Introduction

Over the past several decades, crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells have dominated the commercial solar cell market due to multiple factors, such as high power conversion efficiency (PCE) [1], abundance of raw materials, free of toxicological issues, and well-established processing techniques. This type of solar cells suffers from drawbacks such expensive processing and large material consumption due to high-temperature treatment and thick substrate required. Organic photovoltaics emerge as a promising technology in the solar energy field, thanks to simple processing and low material consumption [2,3,4].

Methods

Results

Conclusion