Reduction in Dislocation Density of Spherical Silicon Solar Cells Fabricated by Decompression Dropping Method

Abstract

Spherical Si solar cells were fabricated based on polycrystalline Si spheres with a diameter of 1 mm produced by a dropping method. To decrease the cooling rates of Si spheres by decreasing the convection heat transfer to ambient, the Si spheres were dropped in a free-fall tower at a pressure of 0.2 atm. The conversion efficiency of low-pressure spherical Si solar cells was higher than that of normal-pressure spherical Si solar cells. Both Si spheres were polycrystals that consisting of crystal grains of about 200 µm. The distribution between electric active defects and the crystal quality were characterized by electron beam induced current (EBIC) measurements and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). By EBIC measurements, the low-pressure spherical Si solar cells were clearly observed to have the lower recombination sinks than the normal-pressure spherical Si solar cells. By TEM, the dislocation density in the low-pressure spherical Si solar cells was observed to be more reduced than that in the normal-pressure spherical Si solar cells. The dislocation density in the low-pressure Si spheres decreased because the reduction in the stress generated in the crystal grain.