Structural characterization of the interface structure of amorphous silicon thin films after post-deposition argon or hydrogen plasma treatment

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The interfaces in silicon thin film solar cells and silicon heterojunction solar cells are considered to be very important for the solar cell conversion efficiency. This work studies the interface properties of hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin films deposited on crystalline silicon wafers after post-deposition hydrogen plasma treatment (HPT) or argon plasma treatment (APT). The investigation extends our previous study by examining the structural changes resulting from the post-deposition plasma treatment on silicon thin film solar cells. We analyzed the ellipsometry and infrared spectra of our samples to gain a deeper understanding of the fundamental plasma treatment effects. By using post-deposition APT and HPT, we were able to reduce the material stress and improve the structure of these layers. Our results show that APT yields a more compact material with fewer voids and less distinct localized tail states. We discuss the effect of APT and HPT on the most crucial interface in silicon heterojunction solar cells, the i-a-Si:H/c-Si interface. We propose to introduce APT as a post-deposition process step in the fabrication of silicon heterojunction solar cells.