Prediction of sub-pyramid texturing as the next step towards high efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cells

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 14; no. 1; p. 3596
• Main Authors: Chu, Feihong, Qu, Xianlin, He, Yongcai, Li, Wenling, Chen, Xiaoqing, Zheng, Zilong, Yang, Miao, Ru, Xiaoning, Peng, Fuguo, Qu, Minghao, Zheng, Kun, Xu, Xixiang, Yan, Hui, Zhang, Yongzhe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 16.06.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 147/137; 639/301/1005; 639/4077/4072/4062; Amorphous silicon; Cell morphology; Cytology; Epitaxial growth; Heterojunctions; Humanities and Social Sciences; Low temperature; Molecular dynamics; Morphology; multidisciplinary; Photovoltaic cells; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Silicon; Solar cells; Texturing; Tuning
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39342-3

The interfacial morphology of crystalline silicon/hydrogenated amorphous silicon (c-Si/a-Si:H) is a key success factor to approach the theoretical efficiency of Si-based solar cells, especially Si heterojunction technology. The unexpected crystalline silicon epitaxial growth and interfacial nanotwins formation remain a challenging issue for silicon heterojunction technology. Here, we design a hybrid interface by tuning pyramid apex-angle to improve c-Si/a-Si:H interfacial morphology in silicon solar cells. The pyramid apex-angle (slightly smaller than 70.53°) consists of hybrid (111) 0.9 /(011) 0.1 c-Si planes, rather than pure (111) planes in conventional texture pyramid. Employing microsecond-long low-temperature (500 K) molecular dynamic simulations, the hybrid (111)/(011) plane prevents from both c-Si epitaxial growth and nanotwin formation. More importantly, given there is not any additional industrial preparation process, the hybrid c-Si plane could improve c-Si/a-Si:H interfacial morphology for a-Si passivated contacts technique, and wide-applied for all silicon-based solar cells as well. The unexpected crystalline silicon epitaxial growth and interfacial nanotwins formation remain a challenging issue for silicon heterojunction technology. Here, the authors design a hybrid interface by tuning pyramid apex-angle to improve c-Si/a-Si:H interfacial morphology in silicon solar cells.