Tunable Hole‐Selective Transport by Solution‐Processed MoO3−x Via Doping for p‐Type Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

Abstract

Molybdenum oxide (MoO3−x, x < 3) has been successfully used as an efficient hole‐selective contact material for crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells. The carrier transport capability strongly depends on its work function, that is, oxygen vacancies; however, there are lack of effective methods to modulate the multiple oxidation states. Herein, the oxidation states of solution‐processed MoO3−x by doping Nb5+ to improve its hole‐selective contact performance with silicon are tuned. With the optimum doping concentration of 5%, both the reduced Mo5+ and oxygen vacancies increase, resulting in a decrease in the contact resistivity between the MoO3−x film and p‐type silicon from 161.1 to 62.9 mΩ·cm2 and an increase of the effective carrier lifetime from 165.4 to 391.0 μs simultaneously. Similarly, the doping of Ta5+ or V5+ in MoO3−x improves the passivated contact performance with silicon, while the former increases the concentration of oxygen vacancies and the latter reduces it. The solar cell with the structure of Ag/MoO3−x:Nb/p‐Si exhibits a conversion efficiency of 18.37%, which is the highest so far reported for the solution‐processed MoO3−x/silicon heterojunction. This work demonstrates a feasible strategy of tuning hole selectivity in MoO3−x by doping for high‐efficiency solar cells and other optoelectronic device applications.